A Century of Chess: Euwe-Alekhine 1935 (Part 2)

We pick up at the halfway point with the score once again even. Alekhine dominated the early stages of the match, holding a three-point lead after Game 9. Alcoholism is the favorite explanation for what happened from there, with Alekhine losing a pawn in the opening in Game 12 and castling straight into a punishing kingside attack in Game 14. Overconfidence may also have had its role to play with Lasker saying of Alekhine’s 7.g4 in Game 7, “He thinks he can play anything.”

After Game 14, Alekhine seemed duly chastened. On a train ride with Lasker, he informed the ex-world champion that he would  "play more solidly, more logic and less recklessness" and Lasker promptly reported that "Alekhine has come to his senses. The match is entering a new phase."  It’s not clear that Alekhine kept to his promise. The most egregious report of his drinking came after Game 21. But even with Alekhine clearly redoubling his efforts, Euwe got the better of him, having a stretch of seven games where he scored +4-0=3.

The question then presents itself if Euwe was, in fact, a better player than Alekhine, and, based on the play in the match, there’s a surprisingly strong case that he was. In prescient remarks before the match, Capablanca said, “Dr. Alekhine's game is 20% bluff. Dr. Euwe's game is clear and straighforward. Dr. Euwe's game is not as strong as Alekhine's in some respects but is more evenly balanced." And that was largely borne out. Euwe did very well playing simple chess and not being overawed by his famous opponent. He did blunder occasionally and he did get overwhelmed in some of the tactical complications, but Euwe also, often, seemed to be playing a deeper chess than Alekhine’s. His opening preparation was superior. If Alekhine had his way with Euwe’s French Defense early in the match, Euwe made up for it with his superior understanding of hypermodern lines and by decommissioning Alekhine’s Grunfeld Defense. In the ‘Slav battle,’ which was the theoretical centerpiece of the match, Euwe prevailed, showing an ability to generate play on both sides of the board. And Euwe’s middlegame play was often more interesting than his opponent’s. He seemed less hellbent on attacks and more interested in looking for advantages wherever he could find them. And in a few games he seemed to dominate across the entire board, above all by making his space advantages count against Alekhine’s kinetic setups. Euwe’s Mitteleuropa manner makes us think of him as a sleepy player, the champion of the duffers, but probably the better way to understand his success in the match was that his play was emblematic of a new approach to the game, which emphasized both theoretical and physical preparation. In a sense he was the first Soviet world champion, at home in the hypermodern lines, and concentrating on deep theoretical study in tandem with a physical fitness regime. It all came together and, at different points in the match, Alekhine — as dominant as he had been — seemed suddenly confronted with a kind of chess he did not understand.

Game 15 was a very complicated draw, with Euwe sacrificing the exchange in a queenless middle game. Alekhine emerged ahead but the game stayed in the drawing window. 

Badly needing to regain control of the match, Alekhine did so in Game 16 with a positional squeeze culminating in a long rook-and-pawn endgame. 

Having played titanic chess through the match the players took a deserved rest with a short draw in Game 17 — and then took another very short one in Game 18, apparently to save their strength for the final push. In Game 19, Alekhine, having squandered a three point lead, now took a two point lead with what well may have been his best game of the match, with 13.Bd2! catching Euwe off-guard in his pet Slav. 

But Euwe struck right back in Game 20, winning with the same variation of the Slav that he faced as black in the first game. He attacked in the middlegame, netting a pawn, and then found the problem-like 30.Ra2 to secure the victory. 

In Game 21, it seems that Alekhine’s alcoholism got entirely the best of him. There was a strange set of circumstances connected to the 21st game where the car to pick up Alekhine at his hotel came late and Alekhine, annoyed, seems to have gone on a mini-bender leading to questions about whether the game had to be canceled. Euwe bravely went as black into the same variation of the Slav where white had been successfully able to play against the pinned e5 knight, but now he found black’s resources in the position, to put the game on a more positional footing and then slowly infiltrate white’s camp.

Game 22 was a short draw apparently prompted by Alekhine’s delight at the arrival of his Siamese cats which resulted in a lack of interest in playing. But then it was game on again in Game 23. Euwe was the one driving this game, taking the advantage with black and eventually netting a pawn. But Alekhine played carefully on defense and stayed within the drawing window.

Game 24 could well have been the decisive game of the match. Alekhine suddenly abandoned the Slav, which had been a problem for him throughout the match, and switched to the Dutch. It worked psychologically and he was the one setting the tempo through the middlegame. The pawn ending could have been a win had he played 32…a5, but, with 32…c5 — probably the single greatest mistake of Alekhine’s career — the game was drawn with no further drama. Capablanca would comment that Alekhine’s endgame skills were weaker than other top players, and this game may be the greatest proof of his case. 

With tension at the breaking point in Game 25, Euwe suddenly won in a rout — taking a lead that he would never relinquish. Alekhine’s liability in the match had been his defense with black against 1.d4. Now, when it mattered most, his openings from the white side deserted him. The game was over after a cute tactical trick on move 14, although Alekhine kept it interesting for another thirty moves. 

Game 26 is the Pearl of Zandvoort, the most beautiful game of the match and of Euwe’s career and the game that made him world champion. Since it’s so central to Euwe’s legacy, it’s worth seeing it from the perspective of the virtues he brought to chess. Facing a Dutch Defense, which Alekhine had just surprised him with, Euwe came prepared. Alekhine gave him the opportunity at move 11 to enter into a wild line where black would have had an attack for the exchange. Euwe played it safe there but then was the one to do the sacrificing, offering a piece on move 21 in exchange for three pawns and a mobile pawn mass. The piece turned into a rook, but the pawns proved unstoppable. 

But Alekhine was one of the greatest fighters in chess history, and with, really, his whole livelihood at stake he overpowered Euwe with a crisp win in Game 27. Having lost control of 1.d4, he switched to a king’s pawn opening and retained a comfortable advantage out of a Vienna all the way to the endgame. 

It must be hard to imagine the strain both players were under at this point in the match, Alekhine desperately needing a win to retain the world championship, Euwe trying to run out the clock until Game 30 against the most dangerous attacker in chess history. In Game 28, Alekhine entered the endgame a pawn ahead out of a positional middlegame but had no real winning chances in a fairly technical bishop v. knight ending.

Euwe now was achingly close to the finish line and stunned Alekhine in Game 29 by playing his own opening - 1…Nf6 - against him. “My entire career again passed before me,” Alekhine recalled upon seeing the move. Euwe had a similar drawing strategy as in the previous game. He shed a pawn out of the sharp opening but it wasn’t nearly enough for Alekhine to win in the ensuing rook ending.

Sitting down at the board for Game 30, Euwe announced, “Doctor I’ll accept a draw anytime.” Alekhine of course was looking to fight and played in desperado style for a kingside attack, but Euwe found the key simplification and, on move 40, two pawns down Alekhine was compelled to offer a draw.

Sources: Munninghoff's biography of Euwe isn't available to me online. Kasparov discusses the match extensively in My Great Predecessors. Edward Winter addresses the Alekhine alcohol question here. ddtru has an extensive blog post here. There is a rare piece of documentary footage of both Capablanca and Euwe discussing the match in advance and with Capablanca rating Euwe's chances highly.