Euwe was always an amateur player, not a professional; he taught mathematics in a girls’ school in the Netherland for much of his active playing career, then was employed by a computer firm. He devoted much of his life to teaching chess, through books and articles. My favourite among his writings is a collection of articles about the middlegame with Hans Kramer, later published in two volumes. He collected and organised opening theory, he wrote books for beginners and masters, and he took the Presidency of FIDE. His own games are not often quoted in instructional books these days, but he was a very fine player, able to compete at the top level even in 1952, as we will see.
Smyslov on Euwe:
‘From my youth I was familiar
with the facets of Euwe’s versatile chess activity: his books showed that he was a splendid
teacher; the novelties employed in his games
and his analyses in chess magazines showed
that he was an outstanding theoretician. His
aggressive handling of the opening on a realistic positional base, and his unexpected manoeuvres, his amazing skill in finding a veiled
way out of a difficult position demonstrated
the Dutch grandmaster’s wonderful tactical
gift. Later I was also able to appreciate fully
the other fine qualities of the fifth world
champion — industriousness, stamina, self-
control, and his gentleman-like attitude to his
opponents.’
Opening
The ‘Strategy’ part of Euwe’s book Strategy and Tactics in Chess is mostly a long annotation of this game, where Black struggles to advance his backward c-pawn in the face of White’s central pressure:
Euwe was a great student of the opening, and described that “the opening weapon was knocked out of (Alekhin’s) hand” in their first match. But he brought psychological guile as well as theory.
Euwe also remarked:
“On discovering any difficulties, Alekhine
preferred to stake everything.
This is why, on encountering solid positions
in the even-numbered games, he began playing in reckless style, which brought him a win
in the fourth game and almost brought a win
in the sixth. My objective with White was
clear: after achieving a slight advantage, I had
to resist in the tactical complications. Of
course, this was not easy against a player of
such class, but, on the other hand, it did not
seem impracticable: after all, the tactical complications were created in positions that were
favourable for me. That is, I was playing as
though with a favourable wind… My new tactics were crowned with complete success. In
the 12th and 14th games Alekhine again
played extremely riskily
and to win it was
sufficient for me to make only two or three
genuinely good moves.”
Middlegame
First, Euwe’s famous demonstration of the power of mobile pawns:
People often emphasise the rational and logical in Euwe’s chess, but he had as much imagination and verve as anyone. Anderssen was also a professor of mathematics!
Euwe surprised many by entering the Zurich Candidates’ Tournament in 1953; his play in the second half of this double-round tournament showed the poor stamina of middle age, but in the first half, he was equal to any. Kotov won the first brilliancy prize for a game that is rightly famous, but the second and third brilliancy prizes went to Euwe.
Click […] to choose a game:
Endgame
Euwe is not much known for his endgame play, but it is as clear and witty as the rest of his game: his idea at move 24 is piquant, but the whole endgame is peppered with ideas.
A tricky Rook endgame follows an exciting opening and middlegame. There is much to savour here: