Machgielis "Max" Euwe (Dutch: [ˈøːʋə]; May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess player, mathematician, author, and chess administrator. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 until 1937. He served as President of FIDE, the World Chess Federation, from 1970 to 1978.
Early years, education, and professional career Euwe was born in the Watergraafsmeer, in Amsterdam. He studied mathematics at the University of Amsterdam under the founder of intuitionistic logic, L.E.J. Brouwer (who later became his friend and for whom he held a funeral oration), and earned his doctorate in 1926 under Roland Weitzenböck. He taught mathematics, first in Rotterdam, and later at a girls' Lyceum in Amsterdam. After World War II, Euwe became interested in computer programming and was appointed professor in this subject at the universities of Rotterdam and Tilburg, retiring from Tilburg University in 1971. He published a mathematical analysis of the game of chess from an intuitionistic point of view, in which he showed, using the Thue–Morse sequence, that the then-official rules (in 1929) did not exclude the possibility of infinite games.
Early chess career Euwe played his first tournament at age 10, winning every game. He won every Dutch chess championship that he entered from 1921 until 1952, and won the title again in 1955; his 12 titles are still a record. The only other winners during this period were Salo Landau in 1936, when Euwe, then world champion, did not compete; and Jan Hein Donner in 1954. He became the world amateur chess champion in 1928, at The Hague, with a score of 12/15. Euwe married in 1926, started a family soon afterwards, and could play competitive chess only during school vacations, so his opportunities for top-level international chess competition were limited. But he performed well in the few tournaments and matches for which he could find time, from the early 1920s to mid-1930s. He lost a training match to Alexander Alekhine in the Netherlands in December 1926 / January 1927, with 4½/10 (+2−3=5). The match was played to help Euwe prepare for a future encounter with José Raúl Capablanca, then world champion. Euwe lost both the first and second FIDE Championship matches to Efim Bogoljubow, held in the Netherlands in 1928 and 1928‒29 respectively, scoring 4½/10 in each match (+2−3=5 in the first match; +1−2=7 in the second match). He lost a match to Capablanca in Amsterdam in 1931 with 4/10 (+0−2=8). He won a match against Spielmann in Amsterdam in 1932, 3–1, played to help Euwe prepare for his upcoming match with Salo Flohr. In 1932, Euwe drew a match with Flohr 8–8, and was equal second with Flohr, behind Alekhine, at a major tournament in Bern. According to Reuben Fine, these results established Euwe and Flohr as Alekhine's most credible challengers. At Zürich 1934, Euwe again finished equal second with Flohr, behind Alekhine, and he defeated Alekhine in their game.
World Champion
In 1933, Max Euwe challenged Alekhine to a championship match. Alekhine accepted the challenge for October 1935. Earlier that year, Dutch radio sports journalist Han Hollander asked Capablanca for his views on the forthcoming match. In the rare archival film footage where Capablanca and Euwe both speak, Capablanca replies: "Dr. Alekhine's game is 20% bluff. Dr. Euwe's game is clear and straightforward. Dr. Euwe's game—not so strong as Alekhine's in some respects—is more evenly balanced." Then Euwe gives his assessment in Dutch, explaining that his feelings alternated from optimism to pessimism, but in the previous ten years, their score had been evenly matched at 7–7. On December 15, 1935, after 30 games played in 13 different cities around the Netherlands over a period of 80 days, Euwe defeated Alekhine by 15½–14½, becoming the fifth World Chess Champion. Alekhine quickly went three games ahead, but Euwe managed to even out and eventually win the match. His title gave a huge boost to chess in the Netherlands. It was also the first world championship where the players had seconds to help them with analysis during adjournments. Euwe's win was regarded as a major upset – he reportedly had believed that beating Alekhine was unlikely – and is sometimes attributed to Alekhine's alcoholism. But Salo Flohr, who helped Euwe during the match, thought Alekhine's over-confidence was more of a problem than alcohol; Alekhine himself said he would win easily. Former world champions Vasily Smyslov, Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, and Garry Kasparov later analysed the match and concluded that Euwe deserved to win and that the standard of play was worthy of a world championship. Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik has said that Euwe won the 1935 match on merit and that the result was not affected by Alekhine's drinking before or during the match.
Euwe's performance in the great tournament of Nottingham 1936 (equal third, half a point behind Botvinnik and Capablanca, half a point ahead of Alekhine) indicated he was a worthy champion, even if he was not as dominant as the earlier champions. Reuben Fine wrote, "In the two years before the return match, Euwe's strength increased. Although he never enjoyed the supremacy over his rivals that his predecessors had, he had no superiors in this period." Euwe lost the title to Alekhine in a rematch in 1937, also played in the Netherlands, by the lopsided margin of 15½–9½. Alekhine had given up alcohol and tobacco to prepare for the rematch, although he resumed drinking later. He returned to the sort of form he had shown from 1927 to 1934, when he dominated chess. The match was a real contest initially, but Euwe's play collapsed near the end, and he lost four of the last five games. Fine, who was Euwe's second, attributed the collapse to nervous tension, possibly aggravated by Euwe's attempts to maintain a calm appearance. The two world title matches against Alekhine represent the heart of Euwe's career. Altogether, they played 86 competitive games, and Alekhine had a +28−20=38 lead. Many of Alekhine's wins came early in their series; he was nine years older, and had more experience during that time. The rematch was also one-sided in Alekhine's favour. Until American-born Bobby Fischer won the title in 1972, Euwe was the last World Chess Champion not born in the Russian Empire or Soviet Union.
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