My Favorite Game Of. Number 21. Max Euwe.

In a recent article I commented that I really must stop posting losses by Max Euwe. I could say the same about Georg Marco and Vasily Smyslov!! So, with a day of doing nothing here, I decided to add to this  series of self indulgencies with my favorite Euwe game.

For those of you who have not read any of this little series, it's a simple format. A bit of chat about the player, and a game that I have tried to annotate properly - albeit without engine input.

So Max Euwe - World Champion. Deservedly so. He was a GREAT player. President of FIDE - the best ever in that role, in my opinion. True Gentleman. One of THE standout figures in chess history.

Rather than give my own thoughts in the way that I usually do in these 'Favorite Game Of' articles, I will just give a couple of quotes from Arnold Denker's book ' The Bobby Fischer I Knew, and Other Stories'.

My thoughts on the first quote - with him 100%. To those who want to say that Euwe didn't deserve to be World Champion, and only did so because Alekhine spent the whole match in a drunken stupor, I will say this.

Grow up, shut up, and study your facts before you make such ridiculous and ill informed statements. End of rant!

( lots of photos of Euwe about - I have posted quite a few!. I chose this one for he header picture - feel free to add any you like in the comments.)

Over to Denker.

''Nothing infuriates me more than to hear Max Euwe described as 'the weakest of the world champions', and as someone who made it to the top only because of Alekhine's alcoholism.

First of all, the life-time score between these two rivals is only narrowly in Alekhine's favour, 44-38. In addition, Dr. E, who captured 102 first prizes during his tournament career, won half a dozen match games from Alekhine that have never been surpassed for their sheer wondrous accuracy.''

The next quote  seemed appropriate to the game I will give, as well as being a small but fitting tribute to Max Euwe.

''What Max wrote about Savielly Tartakower ought to be said of Dr. E himself:

''Without men such as he, the chess world would not have been nearly what it is. It is not the rules and the precepts which make the chess community; it is the individuals.''

When I sat down to throw this together I had five games in my head - not all well known ones. I had to decide on an absolute favorite, and well, I love my chess dogfights, so chose the one that I did. It is also very beautiful - and I appreciate such things too!!

The the other four, as I come to  them, were these:-

And one of my favorites of his games is a loss! Magnificent game where Euwe got tired/confused trying to calculate all the variations, and his opponent escaped. Sometime you know what the best move is, but try to find a better one and make a mistake. I think we have all been there and done that! A tragic, but wonderful, game.

So, my favorite Euwe game. With my own notes - I have spent hours with this one, but no doubt the engines will show how stupid I am!

A beautiful picture to go with it - via the incredible Douglas Griffin on twitter - to whom I am once again indebted.

Enjoy the game, and feel free to join the open house of the comments section - politely!! If you want to post a game of Euwe or make a general comment on him - this article could have been much longer, with more opinions stated ( in chess terms and otherwise ) but I have done it as it is.

The start of game 2 of the 1937 World title Match.