Is this historical question off-topic?

Question

As the title asks, is this question about Alekhine's WWII-era articles off-topic? My first impression (of the current, edited version) of the question was that it was like most any other chess history question from the site. But Istvan Chung's comment points up the fact that the question, while obviously centered on one of the most famous chess players ever, doesn't really seem to be about chess history, and is rather a purely historical question about a chess player.

The closest precedent I can think of from the site is a question asking why Korchnoi left the Soviet Union. That question was well-received, though it's also the case that it has answers that directly pertain to chess.

Anyway, there are currently 3 votes to close the question, and I am curious what the community as a whole thinks:

Should this historical question, which is about a chess player but has little pure chess content, be considered off-topic for the site?

Please vote this post up if you consider the question to be off-topic, or down if you consider it to be on-topic. And of course feel free to offer thoughts as answers below.

Answer 1

I consider the the question to be off-topic, because it deals with political side of Alekhine, not his chess side. If we go to the main StackOverflow site and post a question with emacs tag asking about whether some Richard Stallman's (Richard Stallman is the inventor of emacs and a political activist) political articles are published, I don't think it will be long before the questions is closed.

Moreover, I think that this question has a potential to spark a debate (even though it was much, much better after rephrasing), even though it is not the original posters intention; any topic that has to do with racism accusations tend to have that.

Answer 2

I claim it is on-topic. For this particular question there IS Chess content because the issue of Alekhine's collaboration had repercussions against possible championship match arrangements.

But more importantly, any serious historical fact about Chess personalities adds a dimension of interest to the game. Or do we exclude interesting questions about

• Chess problems,
• Chess psychology,
• Chess variants, or
• Chess engines

because they are not about Chess as it is played over the board?

Answer 3

Silman's recent article on Chess.com about Alekhine (part 7) talks somewhat to the articles. From what little Silman says about the content, the articles are at least chess history and about chess politics and players.

Silman also casts some doubt on the authenticity of authorship as there are errors that Alekhine was unlikely to unintentionally make.

Silman may have access to copies

Silman on Alekhine part 7 "The Dark Years"

Answer 4

This is a close one, but I would say that the question is off topic because it is not about chess, even though it is about a chess master.

What would make the question on topic is if the articles in question made references (good or bad) to e.g. "Jewish" chess. Or that Alekhine expressed a distaste for matches against masters from ethnic group X (as reflected in the fact that he did his best to avoid them).

Alekhine's love life would be similarly off topic. Unless the argument is that a particular romp inspired e.g. a particular "queen's" opening.