A Century of Chess: Max Euwe (1920-29)

There probably has never been a chess player who so consistently had the wind at his back as Max Euwe. He was born in the right place at the right time — in the Netherlands, a small, prosperous country with good organization and interest in supporting a native son — and emerged on the chess scene right after World War I, when fresh talent was scarce and Euwe was almost insistently regarded as one of the world’s elite.

It’s characteristic that his emergence came from a loss. After Amsterdam 1920, where Euwe placed fourth, he played a mini-match against Richard Reti, which he lost but which included a fun attacking miniature that was reprinted around the chess world. His results were decidedly middling throughout the decade, second at Gothenburg B 1920, sixth at Budapest 1921, second-from-last at The Hague 1921, shared ninth at Bad Pistyan 1922, eleventh at London 1922, shared fifth at Maehrisch-Ostrau, first at Hastings 1923/24, shared third at Bad Kissingen 1928, shared fifth at Karlsbad 1929, but the favorite son advantage came to Euwe’s help. FIDE was, at its inception, largely a Franco-Dutch project, with the Dutchman Alexander Rueb serving as its first president. When Rueb tried to initiate a FIDE championship, he tapped Euwe as one of the challengers — even though it would have been hard to claim that Euwe was in the world’s top ten at that time. Euwe played credibly enough but lost both times to Bogoljubow (for some reason, they played two matches) and, from then on, Euwe was in the thick of the world championship conversation, no matter that he was vaulting ahead of players like Nimzowitsch or Vidmar who had a far better claim to a challenge. 

But I shouldn’t be too hard on Euwe. The grandmasters of the day were, clearly, better talent-scouts than I am. They saw something in him and that assessment paid off. If his tournament play in the '20s was somewhat underwhelming, he also tied a match with his teacher Géza Maróczy in 1921 and convincingly won two matches against Edgar Colle. His tournament results became better towards the end of the decade when he had matured and was secure enough in his mathematics career that he could devote time to chess. He would post consistently top-flight results in the ‘30s and won his world championship match against Alekhine fair and square. 

Euwe's Style

1.The hypermodern synthesis. Other players were struck at how easily Euwe assimilated hypermodern ideas into his play and since, for a while in the ‘20s, Euwe was the entirety of youth’s representation in international chess, his style clearly pointed towards what the future would be in the chess world. In Euwe’s hands, hypermodernism wasn’t overly theoretical or arcane. It was just a way of hoarding resources a little longer in the opening and being more flexible in one’s development before initiating a sharp tactical struggle. 

2.Janglyness. Mikhail Botvinnik joked that Euwe was fond of long moves. What he meant was just that Euwe was very tall, but there actually is something to this. Many masters like to keep their army in tight formation, but Euwe’s pieces always seem to be scattered all over the board. His games have this kind of scattershot quality with lots of mistakes and reverses but with a certain effervescent quality shining through. 

Sources: There are two easily-available biographies of Euwe, one by Isaak and Vladimir Linder, the other by Alexander Munninghof. Dutch solidarity continued well after Euwe's death and Jan Timman put out an excellent game collection on Euwe including analysis of many of the games discussed here.