
One may be surprised why Alexander Alekhine went all the way to play in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. This was the 8th South American Championship. Alexander Alekhine won comfortably. Nowadays South America is no longer a hot spot for top chess tournaments. In the pre World War 2 years South American cities in particular Buenos Aires were sophisticated cities with a cosmopolitan Western culture. Buenos Aires was known as the Paris of South America. When I visited in 2013 I saw wide boulevards and a well planned city.