Max Euwe
Machgielis (Max) Euwe (last name is pronounced /ø:wə/) (
May 20,
1901 –
November 26,
1981) was a
Dutch chess player. He was the fifth player to become
World Chess Champion (1935–1937).
Dr Max Euwe was born in Watergraafsmeer, near
Amsterdam. He studied
mathematics at the
University of Amsterdam and taught mathematics, first in
Rotterdam, later at a girls' Lyceum in
Amsterdam.He applied his knowledge of mathematics to the question of infinite chess games, using the
Thue-Morse sequence.
He won every
Dutch chess championship that he participated in from
1921 until
1952, and additionally won the title in
1955. The only other winners during this period were Salo Landau (
1936) and
Hein Donner (
1954). Altogether he won the title a record 12 times. He became amateur chess champion in
1928.
On
December 15,
1935 after 30 games played in 13 different cities over a period of 80 days, he defeated reigning world champion
Alexander Alekhine, becoming the 5th
World Chess Champion. His title gave a huge boost to chess in The Netherlands.
Euwe's win was a major upset, and is sometimes attributed to Alekhine's alcoholism. However Euwe's performances in the great tournaments of Nottingham 1936 and the
AVRO 1938 indicate he was a worthy champion, even if he was not as dominant as his predecessors.
He lost the title to Alekhine in a rematch in
1937. After Alekhine's death in
1946, Euwe was considered by some to have a moral right to the position of world champion, but he graciously consented to participate in the five-contestant tournament to select the new world champion held in
1948. However by then Euwe was well past his best, and he finished last.
His final major tournament was the
Candidates Tournament in Zurich, 1953, in which he came second last.
In 1957 Euwe played a short match against 14 year old future world champion
Bobby Fischer, winning one game and drawing the other. His lifetime score against Fischer was +1-1=1.
From
1970 (when he was 69 years old) until
1978, he was president of
FIDE, and played an important role in organising the famous
Boris Spassky-
Bobby Fischer match.
He also wrote many books on chess, of which the most famous are
Oordeel en Plan (Judgement and Planning) and a series about the opening.
In Amsterdam there is a Max Euwe Plein (square) (near the
Leidseplein), where the 'Max Euwe Stichting' is located in an old jailhouse. It has a Max Euwe museum and a large collection of chess books.
His granddaughter, Esmee Lammers, has written a children's book called
Lang Leve de Koningin (Long live the Queen), which is popular among the youth.
*
Max Euwe vs Alexander Alekhine, Zandvoort-Wch 1935 (26th game of the match), Dutch (A90), 1-0 Game called "The Pearl of Zandvoort"; the decisive victory of the match and at the same time a beautiful demonstration of the strength of passed pawns
*
Paul Keres vs Max Euwe, Zandvoort 1936, French Defense: Advance Variation. Nimzowitsch System (C02), 0-1 Struggle around the advanced White Pe5 transforms into an attack against the White King
*
Yefim Geller vs Max Euwe, Zurich (candidates tournament) 1953 Nimzo-Indian Defense, Saemisch Variation, 0-1 Geller tries to smash Euwe off the board, but Euwe sacrifices a rook for a deadly counterattack
*
Max Euwe vs Robert James Fischer, New York m 1957, Queen's Gambit Declined (D35), 1-0 The ex-champion teaches the future champion how to attack in a very witty short game
* "Strategy requires thought; tactics requires observation." - Max Euwe
* "Does the general public, do even our friends the critics realize that Euwe virtually never made an unsound combination? He may, of course, occasionally fail to take account of an opponent's combination, but when he has the initiative in a tactical operation his calculation is impeccable." â€" Alexander Alekhine
* "If Richard Reti was interested only in the exceptions to positional rules, then Max Euwe believed perhaps a little too much in their immutability." â€" Alexander Alekhine
* "He is logic personified, a genius of law and order. One would hardly call him an attacking player, yet he strides confidently into some extraordinarily complex variations." â€"
Hans Kmoch* "Euwe can only breathe freely when he is smothered in work." â€" Hans Kmoch
* "Euwe resting would not be Euwe. His star is work, work, and more work. Work is his entertainment, his strength and his destiny." â€" Hans Kmoch
* "There's something wrong with that man. He's too normal." â€" Bobby Fischer
World chess champions by
Edward G. Winter, editor. 1981 ISBN 0080249041
* http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Euwe.html -- Max Euwe's biography
*
Max Euwe download 584 of his games in pgn format.
*
Euwe's games at muljadi.org*
25 Critical Positions from His Games*
Remembering Max Euwe (
PDF). Personal reminiscences of GM Genna Sosonko on the 100th anniversery of Euwe's birth.
