His full name was Machgielis Euwe though he went by the short form Max Euwe. Declared the fifth best chess player after Alexander Alekhine, it is quite interesting that these two chess professional were introduced to the game in the same way; at a young age and by their mothers.
He was a Netherlands national born in Watergraafsmeer, Amsterdam. His mother Elizabeth van der Meer was the first person to teach him the game of chess when he was just four years old. Later on, he became a student of mathematics at the Amsterdam University and graduated with honors. He later on gained his doctorate degree on mathematics and became a professor of mathematics in both Rotterdam and Amsterdam.
The knowledge of playing with numbers gave him an insight on how the game of chess works using an intuitional analysis. He used the Thue-Morse sequence to create a model on how the game of chess works and which he used to discover his style of playing. It was not long before he started participating in games and came out a chess guru. His first tournaments were the Dutch Chess Championship in which he won with huge margins around 1921-1952. He also scooped the championship titles in 1955 which brought his record to 12 straight wins.
Though his skill was really high, Max Euwe could only play during school vacations as he had family obligations as well. This means he often missed out on most of the internationally held chess tournaments. Though he was constrained, he always made sure to compete in any of the small tournaments he could be available on which made him maintain a strong name for himself as a lead chess player. It was also on these small tournaments that his chess playing skills grew more and more until he could finally compete against the then champions Alexander Alekhine and Jose Raul Capablanca.
By 1932, the then champion Alekhine discovered he had new rivals to face; this very Netherlands chess champion and Salo Flohr, a Czech Republic grandmaster of chess. Alekhine didn’t feel this as a threat and he immediately challenged the upcoming world chess champion to a duel in 1933. The match however did not materialize until late in October 1935. Closing to 30th of December same year, the two champions had gone through 30 games in 13 cities all over Netherlands. This duel lasted 80 days until Max Euwe finally defeated Alekhine by a 15.5-14.4 margin taking the crown as the 5th World Chess Champion. This new victory spread all over Netherlands and it opened up a great avenue for chess to grow in the same country.
However there was controversy around this match as many people found it rather disappointing. One disappointment was that the Netherlands chess guru won because Alekhine was not in his right of mind at the time; because of his history with alcohol. Others said it was Alekhine’s overconfidence in winning that made him make poor judgment of the play. But then there were those who believed that the Netherlands champion played his best and was deserving of the win.
Besides, the budding chess player from Netherlands had already shown a good record of wins to support his performance in this current game. He had won over tournaments in Nottingham and the AVRO tournaments around 1936 to 1938. His record of scores may not have been the same as what his predecessors had but this new record he set was amazing. It even added to his prestigious position since he is the only chess player who beat a player who had way bigger odds of winning the match given their reputation.
Because of his last defeat, Alekhine wasn’t done with Max Euwe yet. He summoned him to a rematch to prove to himself that he really was defeated by the Netherland’s new champion. Alekhine even gave up alcohol so he could prepare for this great re-match. At the opening of the game, Alekhine definitely showed the kind of skill he had thrilled the world with back in 1927 to 1935. He showed his true chess dominance while his opponent held on strong. However towards the end, the Netherlands champion deteriorated on his play and he lost four games of the total five that were the last. Other chess players who had the privilege of watching the game from the side could tell that the Alekhine’s opponent was pretty nervous at the end despite his efforts to show a composed face.
These two matches against Alekhine’s were the pinnacle of the grandmaster of chess from Netherlands. Analysis around the wins show that Alekhine’s had dominated in more wins in his earlier games which gave him a better average to his Netherland opponent. Moreover, Alekhine had over 9 years of experience in chess, thus he had more moves on the chess board to unleash now that he was sober.
Max Euwe’s career after these two grand matches took a roller coaster move. At the AVRO tournament, he finished fourth place tying with Alekhine’s and another Russian player Reshevsky. He then moved on to play Paul Keres another great player in Netherlands but he lost this match with a six half compared to a seven and half from his opponent.
In 1946, Alekhine met his demise and this opened up the position of World Chess champion. It was debated among the chess experts whether to automatically promote this Netherland grandmaster to the position of World Chess Champion. However he declined this offer and suggested a match between the five top chess champions to be organized so the new king of chess can be elected. Being part of the players, he did not manage to make it to number one but rather finished last in the game, to the amazement of the people who knew his prowess.
Could this be attributed to his old age? He was about 47 years of age and the oldest of the contestants and some argued his skill might have been a bit impaired because of that. Later on in his life, Max Euwe was elected as president of FIDE which was an outfit that governed Chess Championships. He had had his best years as a player and it was time to put the board down.
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