19
Feb
Max Euwe – Netherlands
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, earning his doctorate, and taught mathematics, first in Rotterdam, and 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 the world amateur chess champion in 1928.
On December 15, 1935 after 30 games played in 13 different cities around The Netherlands 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, also played in The Netherlands. After Alekhine’s death in 1946, Euwe was considered by some to have a moral right to the position of world champion, based at least partially on his joint second place finish in the great tournament at Groningen 1946, behind Mikhail Botvinnik. But Euwe 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 prime, and finished last.
His final major tournament was the Candidates’ Tournament in Zurich, 1953, in which he finished next to 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 the FIDE, and played an important role in organising the famous Boris Spassky–-Bobby Fischer title match in Iceland. He died in 1981, age 80, revered around the chess world for his many deep, wide, and long contributions.
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 (Chess Archives).
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. NOTE: a recent visit to Amsterdam (Oct/2006) shows that while the large chess set and statue is still at Max Euwe Plein, the museum no longer is. Brief web research shows that it moved to a new location in Amsterdam due to a large rent increase.
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. It is a fairytale about a young girl who learns to play chess and at the same time finds her father. Lammers filmed the story in 1995. (IMDB Entry)
Source page: Wikipedia under Wikipedia license
