The peak of chess logic.

 

The 5 th World Champion is 100 years. He was born on the 20 th of May 1901 in the small Holland country Vatergrafsmers. His mother - Elisabeth Euwe was fond of chess. Little Max often watched his parent's duels. At the age of 4 he can play and soon began to defeat even his father - teacher Cornelius. The parents could prepare Max to school, but during studying he reached big successes in chess. When he was 12, he became a member of the Amsterdam chess club. Euwe has finished a school and entered the Amsterdam University on mathematician department.

By luck a little country did not see war. Holland prospered not like other European countries. Holland did not forget about chess. The future 5 th World Champion was making progress and the basis of his strategy was understanding chess logic with a help of his profession of mathematician. Euwe "checked the harmony by algebra". The moving of the young Dutchman to chess heights continued. At last in 1921 he became the champion of Holland. After he has won this title at seven tournaments and last time in 1952.

At the beginning of the 20th young Max worked also on problems of mathematics. His friend Gans Kmoh called him the genius of order inking about his play logic. In 1923 Euwe became the doctor of mathematics. Short before the duel for chess crown Capablanca - Alekhin the match Alekhin - Euwe took place, which became a prelude to meetings for the world first place, which they have played together in the next ten years. Russian grandmaster reached a minimum favour +3 - 2 = 5.

Euwe was very glad by result since he had the opponent of the highest class.

Soon after that Alekhin became the World Champion and then had won some shining tournaments and match victories, but to the middle of the 30 th years his successes lost height. At this moment Euwe's friends suggested him to challenge Alekhin for the match. All fee from this duel (10 000 guilders) got Alekhin. After that match Euwe joked with bitter taste: "Flor suggested me to go for a rest to Riviera, but I did not know how I could get to central railway station in Amsterdam".

In the match 30 games were played and pretendent had won + 9 - 8 = 13.

Before the last game Euwe declared that he would accept draw at any moment, as he was a point ahead.

Alekhin made conclusion in the end, where he had two pawns less in desperate position.

It is difficult to remember the match with such uncompromise and result fighting. In spite of the Alekhin's bad shape and his passion of mistic (remember two cats on the board) - the victory of Euwe was outstanding success.

The mainly achievement of Euwe as World Champion - he gave FIDE the rights of organization the matches for the World Champioship. The exception was made only for the match-revenge Euwe - Alekhin in 1935. Alekhin's shining preparation allowed him to return the title of the World Champion for the first time in history of chess. The score of that match was + 4 -10 = 11.

During the Great Patriotic War, Euwe leaded work of food helping, in fact underground charity organization.
The sudden death of Alekhin soon after the war created the problem of selection the future World Champion. The very important was tournament in Groningen in 1946. Euwe was playing very well. Result says itself +11 -2 = 6. But by the pity this result was only the second.

M. Botvinnik got half point more. In 1948 took place the match-tournament of pretenders but Euwe already could not fight for the high place because of his age. After this competition he went from fighting for champion's title.

In 1970 Euwe was elected the president of FIDE. We may say now: the epoch of Euwe and his follower F. Olaffson was a gold century of chess history. FIDE was headed by honest and respectable persons, chess professionals.

At the beginning of the 80th years rough inflation of chess titles has begun, a great number of competitions on level "chess circus". The money had reason too much. At last years began degradation of chess competion because of shortening of time control. This fact was confirmed by the apply from three Champions. Euwe as the president of FIDE was in a hard situation because of the breakdown of the match between R. Fischer and A. Karpov.

The 5 th World Champion put a great efforts to realize this duel and many times put off the date of answer of Fischer.

It was not a reason that Euwe did not like Russians and liked Americans.

As a real chess-player he was dreaming that this interesting competition would be held.

When FIDE president acknowledge Fischer's defeat and went to Moscow to the Karpov's coronation, they remembered that Dutch grandmaster is not only the FIDE president but also a member of the national resistance movement during the years of the Great Patriotic War.

On day of 100 years to 5 th World Champion, we have remembered this outstanding man, grandmaster, publisher, public activiter. We are in debt of his role on the prosperity of chess.

The games, played by Anatoly Karpov:
M.Euwe - E.Bogoljubov
Budapest 1921
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 5.e5 h6 6.Bd2 Bxc3 7.bc3 Ne4 8.Qg4 g6 9.h4 c5 10.Bd3 Nxd2 11.Kxd2 Nc6 12.Rh3 Qa5 13.Bxg6 Rf8 14.Rf3 cd 15.Bxf7+ Kd8 16.Qg7 dc+ 17.Ke1 Qb4 18.Bg6 Rxf3 19.Nxf3 Qf4 20.Rd1 Rb8 21.Qf6+ Qxf6 22.ef6 Bd7 23.g4 Kc7 24.g5 Rh8 25.Bd3 hg 26.hg e5 27.g6 Be6 28.Ng5 Nd4 29.Nh7 Nf3+ 30.Ke2 e4 31.f7 Nd4+ 32.Ke3 Nf5+ 33.Kf4 Ne7 34.g7 Rxh7 35.f8Q
1:0

M.Euwe - S.Flohr
Amsterdam 1932, 8th game of the match
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 c5 5.Bxc4 e6 6.0-0 Nc6 7.Qe2 a6 8.Rd1 b5 9.dc Qc7 10.Bd3 Bxc5 11.a4 b4 12.Nd2 Na5 13.b3 Nd5 14.Bb2 Nc3 15.Bxc3 bc3 16.Ne4 Nxb3 17.Rab1 Na5 18.Rdc1 Be7 19.Rxc3 Qd8 20.Rd1 Qb6 21.Ng5 g6 22.Qf3 0-0 23.Nf6+ Bxf6 24.Qxf6 Bb7 25.Nxh7 Rfd8 26.h4 Rd7 27.h5 Qd8 28.h6
1:0

M.Euwe - D.Tomas
Hastings 1934/35
1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e3 0-0 6.Nf3 Nbd7 7.Rc1 c6 8.Bd3 dc 9.Bxc4 Nd5 10.Bxe7 Qxe7 11.0-0 Nxc3 12.Rxc3 e5 13.Nxe5 Nxe5 14.de Qxe5 15.f4 Qe7 16.f5 b5 17.Bb3 b4 18.f6 gf 19.Rxc6 Qxe3+ 20.Kh1 Bb7 21.Rcxf6 Qe4 22.Qd2 Kh8 23.Bxf7 Rac8 24.R6f2 Rcd8 25.Qg5 Rd6 26.Bd5
1:0

M.Euwe - A.Alekhin
World Championship match 1935. Netherlands 26th game
1.d4 e6 2.c4 f5 3.g3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Be7 5.Bg2 Nf6 6.Nc3 0-0 7.Nf3 Ne4 8.0-0 b6 9.Qc2 Bb7 10.Ne5 Nxc3 11.Bxc3 Bxg2 12.Kxg2 Qc8 13.d5 d6 14.Nd3 e5 15.Kh1 c6 16.Qb3 Kh8 17.f4 e4 18.Nb4 c5 19.Nc2 Nd7 20.Ne3 Bf6 21.Nf5 Bxc3 22.Nxd6 Qb8 23.Nxe4 Bf6 24.Nd2 g5 25.e4 gf 26.gf Bd4 27.e5 Qe8 28.e6 Rg8 29.Nf3 Qg6 30.Rg1 Bxg1 31.Rxg1 Qf6 32.Ng5 Rg7 33.ed Rxd7 34.Qe3 Rxe7 35.Ne6 Rf8 36.Qe5 Qxe5 37.fe Rf5 38.Re1 h6 39.Nd8 Rf2 40.e6 Rd2 41.Nc6 Re8 42.e7 b5 43.Nd8 Kg7 44.Nb7 Kf6 45.Re6+ Kg5 46.Nd6 Rxe7 47.Ne4+
1:0

M.Euwe - L.Steiner
Groningen 1946
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3 d5 6.a3 Bxc3+ 7.bc Nbd7 8.cd ed 9.Ne2 Re8 10.0-0 Nf8 11.f3 c5 12.Ng3 cd 13.cd a6 14.Qd2 Bd7 15.e4 de 16.fe Bc6 17.d5 Bb5 18.Bb2 Qb6+ 19.Kh1 Bxd3 20.Rxf6 gf 21.Nh5 Re5 22.Bxe5 fe 23.Qxd3 Qh6 24.Qh3 Rd8 25.Rf1 Qg5 26.Qf3 Qg6 27.Ng3 Rd7 28.Qc3 Qd6 29.Nf5 Qc7 30.Qg3+ Ng6 31.Qg5 Qd8 32.Nh6+ Kg7 33.Rf6 Qa5 34.Rf1 Qa3 35.Nf5+ Kg8 36.Qf6 Qf8 37.Rc1 Rd8 38.Rc7
1:0

Alexander Geller,
International Arbiter

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