Alekhine’s Last Championship Checkmate

During the 1929 World Chess Championship match in Germany, Cuban chess champion Jose Raul Capablanca defended his title against Russian grandmaster Alexander Alekhine. In one of the games, Alekhine delivered a checkmate directly on the board, rather than winning by resignation. This moment became historically notable because most later championship games ended when the losing player resigned before mate. As a result, the 1929 match marked the last time a checkmate actually occurred on the board during a World Chess Championship game (as of March 2026).

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