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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).
Biography
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.
Notable chess games
- Max Euwe vs Alexander Alekhine, Zandvoort-Wch 1935 (26th game of the match), Dutch (A90), 1-0 Game called "The Pearl from 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
- 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
Quotes
- "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." – 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." – 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." – Hans Kmoch
- "Euwe can only breathe freely when he is smothered in work." – 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." – Hans Kmoch
- "There's something wrong with that man. He's too normal." – Bobby Fischer
References
- World chess champions by Edward G. Winter, editor. 1981 ISBN 0080249041
External links
- 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.
1901 births | 1981 deaths | Chess grandmasters | World Chess Champions | Dutch chess players | Residents of Amsterdam
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"Max Euwe"