Max Euwe

DonMcKim

Jun 8, 2022, 4:17 AM | 5

Max Euwe (1901-1981) was an International Grandmaster (1950), World Chess Champion (1935-1937), and chess administrator. He gave himself tirelessly to promote chess throughout the world. Euwe had professional career as a teacher and remained an amateur player throughout his years of prominence in the chess world.

Euwe wrote a number of chess books, often collaborating with others. A number of these were translated into many languages. His output this way was far more than other great masters (The Oxford Companion to Chess). Among Euwe’s books in English are Strategy and Tactics (1937); From My Games (1938); Meet the Masters (1940), The Development of Chess Style (1968), and Bobby Fischer and his Predecessors (1976). Andy Soltis says that “if Euwe had never become champion, he would also be known as one of the two or three finest chess writers for the average players” (Soltis, “Foreword,” Max Euwe: Fifth World Chess Champion, 6).

Alexander Münninghoff relates that “from very early on, young Max looked on while his parents were playing. He said of himself that by the age of four he had already mastered the basic rules. In a family anecdote dating from around that time, a sleep-walking Max once woke up his mother with the words: ‘Mummy, the king has been mated!’" (Max Euwe, 9).

As a chess administrator, Euwe faced numerous problems. His biographer claims, though, that “all his life Euwe did his utmost to try and find clear and just ways to tackle the often complicated chess problems caused by the frequently difficult personalities of the grandmasters” (329).

Euwe left legacies, still to be appreciated today. As Soltis writes: “Diplomat. Author. Arbiter. Innovator. Analyst. And, yes, world champion too—at a time when the world champ was clearly the best player in the world. That was Max Euwe” (Max Euwe: Fifth World Chess Champion, 8).

Resources

A very full and fine biography of Euwe is Alexander Münninghoff: Max Euwe: The Biography Including 50 Games with the Original Analysis by the Dutch World Champion. New in Chess (Alkmaar, The Netherlands, 2001): https://www.amazon.com/Max-Euwe-Biography-Alexandr-Munninghoff/dp/9056910795/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1BAN7PLPMKD34&keywords=munninghoff+%22max+euwe%22&qid=1654008035&sprefix=munninghoff+ma%2Caps%2C410&sr=8-1

An excellent volume on Euwe is Isaak and Vladimir Linder, Max Euwe: Fifth World Chess Champion. Foreword by Andy Soltis; Game Annotations by Karsten Müller, The World Championship Series (Milford, CT: Russell Enterprises, 2017). See: https://www.amazon.com/Max-Euwe-Fifth-World-Champion/dp/1936490560/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=max+euwe%3A+5th&qid=1654012073&sr=8-1

Max Euwe

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