Max Euwe world champion

today dr. Max Euwe became world champion..... 75 years ago.

i don't want to discus if he was a great champion.... probably some people here will comment alekhine was drinking too much. if anything he is a great teacher/writer!!

i am reading "amateur vs. master" now and i like it even more as "logical chess" (maybe because i can read it in dutch)

i enjoy chess more since i've started reading his book and already bought "judgment and planning in chess"

i am curious what people here think about Max Euwe???

kind greets, pax

I like his book and annotations. He seems to be a logical guy

Fezzik used the exact right word, "Gentleman."  I have never heard anyone say a negative thing about Euwe as an individual.  He was a great writer on the game, and has brought much illumination to the average player.  His books are still useful.  He was also the last WC who was essentially an amateur(in the true sense) player.  Euwe was a full time academic (I believe in mathematics, but my memory may be faulty.  Actually, anyone who has ever seen my try to open a chess game knows my memory is faulty.)  He was a great ambassador for the game and a great leader for FIDE.  While honestly not quite in the league of people like Capablanca or Lasker, he was a very strong player and left chess a far richer kingdom by his presence.

A rational person.

Fischer once suspiciously noted of him, "He's too normal."

He defended his place by noting that he never placed below Alekhine in any of the post-title tournaments they played in (3/4 above as I recall).

It was also said he was fond of long moves and blundered more than his more talented peers.

One of my favorite anecdotes of Euwe is that while on a plane trip in the 70s he agreed to play a fellow passenger a few games, the passenger not knowing who he was. Euwe allowed a few illegal moves without comment along the way. At the end the passenger complained how he still lost to a guy who didn't even know the rules.

i am a litlle embarassed that as a dutch guy iknow so litlle about M.Euwe. that's obvious when i read all the interesting facts and nice annecdotes... thank you all for that...  i''ll visit the local liberary to find some more info. i already found out that one of the championship games was played in the small town where i live (Baarn, 25000 residents) 

one fact some may not know and i realy like ... Euwe was also european amateur heavyweaght boxing champion. so he was a great gentleman and also a fighter.

Well, seeing that he was also a boxing champion, it's no wonder that everyone was saying only nice things about him lol.

You think Kramnik is weaker than Euwe? He beat Kasparov fairly and squarely, defended against Leko at his prime and beat Topalov when he was also at his best at the time, has a stunning 86 non-losing streak, was the 2nd player in history to reach 2800 and he has been at the top 5 like 15 years, he is known as the most accurate player to have ever lived, should I keep going? Come on.

Phew. OK, when you ended the line just before Kramnik overthroned Kasparov, I assumed you meant that.

I agree with you about Khalifmann (eventhough I like him), Pono and Topalov.

By the way, he has a pretty good book called Judgement and Planning in Chess too, it was the first chess book I ever looked at. I never got past the first several pages because it was above my level at the time, but I remember I had liked it.

about this book Jan Timman said something like "i came very far with the book  judgment and planning, i've read it many times" and yesterday on dutch news he again said how great this book is.

i have the book but it's also above my level. from what i've read, the content makes me thinkt about how silman teaches about imbalances. i think i will first read ... master against amateur, amateur becomes master, master against master.

in the first books (wich i am reading atm) many nimzowitsch like rules and also when to break or doubt them, are presented in 25 games per book.  

Euwe has a very nice win against the young Fischer...

Nice combination

Euwe might  be considered one of the possiby two true amateur world champions. Lasker comes to mind as the other, though to a lesser degree. (Morphy too, but only if you want to stretch the point.)  Other world champions have had professions, but few with professions that supported them. Even Botvinnik was probably supported by the state more for his position in Soviet chess than for his engineering skills (which were considerable, no doubt).  

A while back I had presented an interesting interview with Euwe by Hans Bouwmeester that some might find worthwhile.

I vote that Batgirl should be supported by the state.

I second that vote.

I believe Euwe was the most prolific writer on chess of all the world champions. I have several of his books and my favorites are his 2 book set on the Middlegame. I also have never read any "dirt" on Euwe and he is only one of two champions that I have never read anything bad about. The other is Spassky who also has a reputation as a great gentleman in chess. 

Sooooo. . . what dirt do you have on Smylsov and Tal?  :-D

Um I don't think anyone could say anything bad about Tal... other than the "vices" he himself admitted.

Tal had too many fingers.

Quite the contrary, he had too few!