Alexander Alekhine vs El Greco
Two child prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
The record, side by side
| Alexander Alekhine | El Greco | |
| Field | Sports | Art |
| Sub-field | Chess | Painting |
| Born | 1892 | 1541 |
| Died | 1946 | 1614 |
| Country of birth | France | Spain |
| Star sign | Scorpio | Libra |
Who they are
Alexander Alekhine
When Alexander Alekhine arrived in Buenos Aires in September 1927 to challenge José Raúl Capablanca for the World Championship, the chess world expected a formality. Capablanca had not lost a competitive game in eight years. Grandmasters whispered that chess had reached its apex in the Cuban — that the game, played perfectly, would always draw, and that Capablanca was the player who played perfectly. Alekhine, a Russian émigré living in France, was a fine attacking player, perhaps the best combinational talent of his generation, but attacking chess against someone who never made errors was considered…
Full biography of Alexander Alekhine →
El Greco
Domenikos Theotokopoulos — called El Greco, simply "the Greek," by the Spanish who could not pronounce his name — was born in Crete around 1541. He arrived in the world as a Byzantine icon painter, trained in the flat gold-ground tradition of Eastern Christianity, and ended his life as one of the most radical Western painters who ever lived, a figure so far ahead of his time that the twentieth century had to rediscover him to understand what he had been doing.
What they share
- Both are documented on this site with a verified biography.
Where they part
- Different fields: Sports for Alexander Alekhine, Art for El Greco.
- Born in different countries: France and Spain.
- 351 years separate their births (1892 and 1541).
- Their lifetimes never overlapped.
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Alexander Alekhine or El Greco?
- El Greco. Alexander Alekhine was born in 1892, El Greco in 1541.
- What field is each of them in?
- Alexander Alekhine is filed under Sports (Chess). El Greco is filed under Art (Painting).
- Were they contemporaries?
- No - their lifetimes do not overlap.