| Euwe - Keres 1939/40 |
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Introduction
A match of 14 games between Max Euwe and Paul Keres was staged in various Dutch cities - Amsterdam, Utrecht, Hilversum, The Hague and Rotterdam - between the 24th of December, 1939, and the 15th of January, 1940. Prior to this match, Euwe and Keres had played five times, with their first meeting in 1936; the score was +2 =2 -1 in favour of Euwe. The match was hard-fought, with only three draws. Euwe established an early two-point lead, but Keres overtook him, scoring +5 -1 =0 in games 5-10. The late 1930's were a period of transition, with the world champion Alexander Alekhine being unable to maintain the overwhelming dominance he enjoyed in the earlier part of the decade. 1 Salomon Flohr was FIDE's challenger to Alekhine for the world championship (but the champion still had the final say about whom he wished to play against). This match was an opportunity for Keres to reinforce his claim to being the primary challenger for the world championship crown, by playing Euwe, who had been the world champion of 1935-37. Keres wrote: The encounters with the leading masters in Nottingham (1936) and in the AVRO (1938) had proved that Alekhine's 'superclass' no longer existed, and that he would have to fight as hard for his place as any of the candidates ... It might be argued that Alekhine's playing strength has declined somewhat as compared with the period of his greatest ascendancy, while that of his rivals has risen, resulting in the disappearance of the 'superclass'. However, Alekhine is not weaker than any one of the seven claimants. Possibly the decline of his strength is to be explained by approaching old age, fatigue, or analogous reasons; yet his original ideas, fighting temperament, colossal resourcefulness, ingenious combinations – all these have remained almost at the same level ... I can freely declare that none of his seven rivals possesses his resourcefulness, his most subtle grasp of positions, and his experience. The weapons with which he may be conquered consist of fundamental theoretical knowledge, accurate play and, above all, greater endurance and stronger nerves ... a match between Alekhine and any one of the seven candidates will constitute a chess event of exceptional interest, the outcome of which cannot be determined in advance. 2 Preparation
From Mr. M. Levenbach's foreword in Euwe - Keres 1939-1940: After his successful winning spurt in the second round of the major AVRO tournament in the autumn of 1938 Dr. Max Euwe immediately devised a new project. He worked in cooperation with the Euwe committee and there was extensive consultation with the executive board of the Dutch Federation ... The Euwe Committee consisted of Messrs A. de Bruyn, P. Jungman, Th. M. E. Liket, K. J. Nieukerke and Mr. M. Levenbach, with the tireless G. v. Harten as active secretary-treasurer. Full of enthusiasm, the Committee took up its duties, and considered two projects: a match against Paul Keres or against Reuben Fine, both winners of the above-mentioned tournament. Keres had, under the provisions of this tournament, been given the right to a title fight with the world champion, Dr. Alekhine. Consequently, as Dr. Euwe and the Committee did not want to interfere with this, Fine was invited to play a 14-game match against Dr. Euwe in the summer of 1939. Fine, who was then in America, accepted the invitation, but declined in the spring of 1939 due to the international tensions ... Meantime, the negotiations between Keres and Alekhine about the battle for the world championship were floundered. This allowed the Committee to now feel themselves free to address an invitation to Keres, who was immediately prepared to play ... The course of the match caused us some disappointment, because Dr. Euwe, albeit at the smallest possible margin, lost the match. The match itself has had an exciting course and chess literature was enriched with many games of theoretical interest and of great beauty. 3 Contemporary reaction "Euwe-Keres, a test of strength of special significance - Is Keres also a match player? Upward trend in Euwe's performance. Keres, traveling by airplane from Stockholm, arrived in Amsterdam on Friday (22nd December), and on Sunday his duel with the former world champion, Dr. Euwe will commence. This match is viewed by the national and international chess communities with great anticipation. After all, this meeting will probably provide an answer to the question of whether Dr. Euwe has returned to a form which could entitle him to challenge the world champion Dr. Alekhine to a new title fight, or whether Paul Keres, at fourteen years younger, whom many in the chess world see as a future world champion, would be the most eligible. Euwe has already played two title matches, whereas Keres has not had the opportunity to prove that he is a world championship contender ... Keres has actually played only one match, in 1938 in Gothenberg against Gideon Stahlberg (Sweden), which ended in a tie (two wins, two losses, four draws). But everybody understands that being an excellent tournament player - which Keres has proven to be - by no means guarantees that he will be an ace in match play. The reverse is of course also the case. Keres, in the upcoming match against Euwe, may now have to demonstrate that he is equally as fearsome in match play as he has been in his tournament play in recent years. If so, then the Estonian may rightfully cherish world championship aspirations." 4 "A second question, which could be raised before the start of the contest, is: in which direction is Keres' style evolving? Playing successfully in international tournaments, his style is most impressive. He is full of enterprising spirit, has developed a marked preference for gambits, and almost always plays an attacking type of game. As some experts put it, in 'the wild' style. But despite this attacking game, Keres does not neglect the defence; he is perfectly aware of opening theory, he has already made a special study of opening variations, and is an artist in endgames ... Generally, it has been assumed that Keres would eventually adopt a quieter, safer, yes, one might even say, sedate style ... For Euwe, there is a lot at stake. After the second match for the world championship (1937), there was a major slump in his form, but in November 1938, in the second part of the AVRO tournament, our compatriot regained his old form. That is, he recaptured an inner certainty, with confidence in his own abilities returning again - which is not to be underestimated psychologically, because one may be technically very skilled, but without those attributes, the master will never reach peak performance ... This upward trend has been maintained in the past year, and Euwe has been unassailable in his match against Salo Landau. Not only because he defeated his fellow competitor by a large margin, but in particular the manner in which he proved he has overcome his slump. In this context, it was seen as beneficial for the Euwe Committee to organize a match against Keres. The result will matter a lot, to the extent of whether Euwe will again be allowed to make a bid for the highest title in the foreseeable future." 4 Euwe
Euwe had briefly held the world champion title, then lost it again to Alekhine (see Alekhine - Euwe World Championship Match (1935) and Euwe - Alekhine World Championship Rematch (1937)). After losing his title, Euwe was twice outdistanced in tournaments by Keres. He was 4th in Noordwijk (1938), in which Keres came second, and at AVRO (1938) (6th-27th November 1938) he shared 4th place with Alekhine and Samuel Reshevsky.
Euwe came second to the Hungarian champion Laszlo Szabo in a middle-ranking tournament at Hastings (1938/39) over the New Year 1938-39. Euwe was Dutch champion in 1938 and 1939, decisively beating Salo Landau, who had been the 1936 Dutch champion, in a match for the 1939 championship (+5 –0 =5). Apart from his victory at Bournemouth (1939), ahead of Ernst Ludwig Klein and Salomon Flohr (in August 1939), Euwe restricted himself to local tournaments in Holland before this match. His victories included Amsterdam (VARA) in May 1939, Baarn (A), and Amsterdam (KNSB), won jointly with Szabo and Flohr. Keres
Keres and Reuben Fine tied for first place at AVRO (1938), a tremendously strong tournament, which included Alekhine and Jose Raul Capablanca in its line-up of eight of the strongest players in the world. Keres won the tournament with a superior Sonneborn-Berger tiebreak score. Keres had lost no games and had defeated Fine, Reshevsky and Capablanca each by 1½–½. "At the AVRO tournament Paul Keres was the only undefeated player and finished in first place, ahead of four world champions (we count Botvinnik as a future world champion)."
5
This tournament was initially envisaged as a means to promote a world title challenger (hoping this would be Euwe) on the rather optimistic assumption that the world champion Alekhine would then recognize the winner as his next opponent. A new cohort of players was entering the elite, and Keres was seen as a potential world champion. According to Capablanca, Amongst the new talents there are two who stand out more as great masters than the others: Mikhail Botvinnik and, on a secondary level, Keres. Also Alekhine, of course; but he is not new; he is old like me. Keres plays admirably well; his sense of fantasy is enormous, his imagination fiery. But his judgment is unsteady. He does not always know if the game in front of him is won, lost or drawn; and when it is won it also sometimes happens that he does not know for sure why and how it is won. 6 Keres was living a demanding life. From 1937 to 1941, apart from his burgeoning chess career, he studied mathematics at the University of Tartu, and after his great victory at AVRO, Keres was feted in municipal celebrations across his native Estonia. With little time to rest and prepare, he played poorly in the Leningrad / Moscow training (1939) (3rd January - 1st February), ending shared 12th. He won the tournament in Margate (1939) (in April), ahead of Capablanca. Keres then played for Estonia at the Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires (21st August - 19th September 1939), on the top board (+12 =5 -2: 76.3%); the Estonian team won the bronze medal. During the Olympiad, on the 1st September, Germany invaded Poland, and Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The members of the German team, including their best player Erich Eliskases, chose to remain in Argentina, as did the elite players Miguel Najdorf and Gideon Stahlberg. Despite the outbreak of war, Keres did not stay in neutral Argentina. He played in Buenos Aires (1939) (2nd-19th October), sharing first with Miguel Najdorf, and then returned home to Estonia. In this dangerous and turbulent period, he accepted the Dutch invitation to play Euwe, and traveled to Holland rather than undertaking a previously contemplated tour of the USA. Timetable
Game 1 - 24th December 1939 --- Amsterdam
Game 2 - 25th December 1939 --- Amsterdam
Game 3 - 27th December 1939 --- Utrecht
Game 4 - 29th December 1939 --- Amsterdam
Game 5 - 30th December 1939 --- Amsterdam
Game 6 - 1st January 1940 ------- The Hague
Game 7 - 2nd January 1940 ------ The Hague
Game 8 - 3rd January 1940 ------- Amsterdam
Game 9 - 5th January 1940 ------- Rotterdam
Game 10 - 6th January 1940 ------ Rotterdam
Game 11 - 7th January 1940 ------ Rotterdam
Game 12 - 10th January 1940 ----- Amsterdam
Game 13 - 13th January 1940 ----- Hilversum
Game 14 - 14th-15 January 1940 -- Amsterdam
The match almost collapsed at the last moment. After the Olympiad, Keres returned to Tallinn via Gibraltar, Genoa and Berlin. He had then planned to travel to Amsterdam by train. Due to visa difficulties, he was forced to commence the trip from Stockholm, but the ferry to Stockholm was overbooked. Keres was about to telegraph the Euwe Committee that the match would not take place, when he heard that a group of people in Riga had arranged a private aeroplane charter from Stockholm. He managed to persuade them to give him a seat. These travel problems surely could not have helped his frame of mind, or physical preparation, for the match. 7 The official opening of the match was held on the 23rd of December, at the Hotel Gooiland, in Hilversum. Keres gave a short speech. He said that he was happy to be back in the Netherlands, where he felt totally at home, thanks to his three previous visits, namely Zandvoort (1936), Noordwijk (1938) and AVRO (1938). The task that awaited him would be very onerous, as Dr. Euwe was one of the best match players in the world. Keres expressed his hopes that the quality of the games would be high and gallantly wished that the best would win. 8 Euwe also spoke and stated his belief that the "very young Keres" would undoubtedly be a future world champion, but the Dutch champion wryly hoped that this would happen "only in ten or fifteen years' time". 9 The progress of the match
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4
Keres ½ ½ 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 ½ 0 7½
Euwe ½ ½ 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 ½ 1 6½
Progressive score: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Keres ½ 1 1 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 6 7 7½ 7½
Euwe ½ 1 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5 5½ 6½
Euwe was White in the odd-numbered games.The games
Game 1
Later analysis established that Euwe had an opportunity to gain an advantage from the opening, but instead, mass exchanges on the queenside eventually led to a drawn position. Game 2
Euwe defended using his favourite Open Spanish, and the game followed Keres vs Euwe, 1937. Keres introduced a novelty, 11. Qe1, but it proved ineffective. Euwe was able to equalize with little trouble. Game 3
Keres played a pawn sacrifice, which gave him little compensation against Euwe's accurate play. In the third successive Spanish opening, Euwe scored the first win of the match. The game followed the theory of the times for 17 moves. Keres then was outplayed, and his defence was marred by several blunders. He resigned in a hopeless position. Game 4
Keres again played the Spanish. This time, Euwe played a closed variation. After a long struggle, in which neither player gained the advantage, Keres miscalculated. He sacrificed a pawn to allow his <b> pawn to advance, but Euwe found a tactical refutation that left him three pawns up. Game 5
Despite his success with the Spanish (+2 =2 -0), Euwe chose a <d> pawn opening. Although Keres may have been surprised, he chose the Classical Nimzo-Indian in response. Euwe soon had the worse of it. Keres played very well, establishing a rook on Euwe's second rank. He then won a pawn, and went into an opposite-coloured-bishops endgame, which he managed to win. Game 6
Euwe found himself in an inferior position from the opening. He managed to effect some simplification, but remained under positional pressure. Keres gained space on the kingside, but was still not winning, until Euwe sealed a poor 43rd move, that left him in a cramped position. Keres played extremely accurately in the ending to break through on the queenside and win. Game 7
The first eleven moves followed Game 1. Keres built up a promising position, having compromised his opponent's kingside defences, but then blundered a piece: 
click for larger viewAfter 30.Bc4+! he resigned, as 30...Kh8 31.Rxe4! wins the knight. Game 8
In a Slav Defence, both players chose sharp attacking lines. Keres (as White) emerged with the advantage, and, with Keres' king still in the centre, Euwe sacrificed a knight on <e5> for two center pawns. This created a highly tactical position. In the ensuing melee of attack and counterattack, Euwe had a chance of snatching a draw, but his king was chased down the kingside, into a mating net. Game 9
According to Egon Varnusz, Keres' 23rd move was a "breathtakingly brilliant positional sacrifice of the Queen. This game ... was later called 'The Ninth', in reference to Beethoven's last symphony." 10 Keres commented that "Euwe played the opening inaccurately and lost a pawn, obtaining in return only highly problematic counter-chances on the kingside. In order to eliminate these possibilities I offered a positional queen sacrifice, after the acceptance of which Black's rooks and bishops began operating with destructive power". 11 Keres sacrificed a pawn with 22...d3, and then played the terrific queen sacrifice 22.Rxd3 Qxd3! 
click for larger viewGame 10
Euwe had almost equalized (as Black) when he overlooked a sharp tactical pawn sacrifice by Keres on move 16. Taking the pawn lost, so instead Euwe, in his own words, "gave up two pawns, hoping for counterplay on the kingside". But his threats proved insufficient, and despite both players being short of time, "the ending (was) untenable." 12 Game 11
Keres played a rare line in the Slav Defence with 6...Qa5. This variation was practically refuted by Euwe's successful opening plan, which was later adopted in Botvinnik vs Denker, 1945. After these two sharp defeats, this variation has rarely been tried. 
click for larger viewEuwe's 21.Nh5 (21.Re1! being the solid alternative to maintain the advantage) may have been too sharp, because instead of Keres' 21...f6, the move 21...Be2 (which was suggested after the game) seems to lead to a forced draw: 21.Nh5 Be2 22.Nf6+ gxf6 23.Rg3+ Kh8 24.f3! (better than the 24.Bh6 suggested at the time) 24...Rg8 25.Rxg8+ Kxg8 26.Bh6 Qc8 27.Qb2 Bc4 28.Qf2 Kh8 29.Qh4 Qd8 30.Qg4 Qg8 31.Qf4 Qg6 32.Qb8+ Euwe won prettily, with (21.Nh5 f6 22.Rg3 Kh8 23.Ng7 Qe4 24.Nh5 Qf5 25.Nf6 Rf7 26.Be5 Nc6 27.Qd6 Ne5 28.de5 Raf8 29.h3 Bc4 30.Rd1 Ba2) 
click for larger view31.Qd8!, after which Keres resigned.
Game 12
According to Keres, "Euwe was simply unrecognizable and lost almost without a fight". 13 Keres played a Reti Opening, which Euwe invited him to transpose into a Queen's Gambit Accepted. On the 6th move, Euwe weakened his queenside gravely and unnecessarily with 6...b5, 
click for larger viewapparently fixated on typical Queen's Gambit maneuvers. Euwe later admitted that "This move, which can be very strong in the Queen's Gambit, is out of order in the present, and quite different, circumstances. The advanced pawns are soon subjected to an attack which proves embarrassing for Black. Correct was 6...Nc6 and 7...e6 to be followed by normal developing moves." 14 In the remainder of this short game, Euwe was dispirited and played poorly. He lost the right to castle, and soon had "practically no moves left". Keres played "relentlessly", and won in 23 moves. The game was later followed as far as move 16 in Unzicker vs Deep Thought, 1991. Deep Thought varied with 16...b4, but still lost. Game 13
According to Fred Reinfeld, "In the thirteenth game, Euwe played so nervously for the offensive that that he soon found himself with a very inferior game and was only too glad to accept his opponent's offer of a draw". 15 Euwe could not gain any advantage against Keres' Queen's Indian. He sacrificed a pawn, which gave him positional compensation, but still no tangible advantage. He then, probably more mindful of the state of the match score than the requirements of the position, made a superficial attacking move. This gave Keres a superior game and Euwe was glad to agree to his proposal of a draw. Game 14
According to Garry Kasparov, this game was "Euwe's best achievement in this uncompromising encounter". 16 Euwe defended with a Queen's Gambit Accepted, and the game followed contemporary theory until move 13. Keres played passively, and this allowed Euwe to develop a significant initiative. With his two bishops and queen raking his opponent's kingside, he won the exchange, then overcame Keres' determined defence in a complex endgame. His eventual victory attracted praise for the quality of his endgame technique. Postscript
There were reports that "At the insistence of the Euwe Committee, an arrangement was made immediately after the end of the first match for a return match against Keres. It was to take place in 1941 ..." 17, 18 Unfortunately, this was not to be. The day after the conclusion of the match, the Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad newspaper led with the following headlines: The Motor Vessel Arendskerk torpedoed by German submarine and The war enters Finland. Russian terror from the air. Germany was to invade the Low Countries and the Dutch forces surrendered on the 14th May 1940. Soon afterward, on the 16th - 17th June 1940, Estonia too was occupied - by the Soviet Union. The fates of Euwe and Keres were to be determined not by any civilized competition but in the chaos and suffering of a world war. Match books
Euwe wrote a match book in Dutch: Euwe - Keres 1939-1940, published in 1940 by De Schaakwereld. Emanuel Lasker wrote, The 14 games played in the match between Paul Keres and Max Euwe (Holland 1939/40), New York 1940. 19 Notes
1 See Chessmetrics website at http://www.chessmetrics.com/cm/cm2/...
2 Keres in Chess Review, March 1941, pp. 51-53. The rivals mentioned (apart from Keres) being Botvinnik, Capablanca, Euwe, Fine, Flohr and Reshevsky.
3 Euwe - Keres 1939-1940, by Max Euwe. (In Dutch)
4 Translated from an unsigned article in Zaans Volksblad, 23rd December 1939, http://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/vi...
5 See https://en.chessbase.com/post/remem... 6 Capablanca, quoted and translated by Edward Winter. From an interview published in the Buenos Aires magazine El Gráfico, 1939 and reprinted pp. 103-107 in Homenaje a Capablanca (Havana, 1943), http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/...
7 De Residentiebode, 23rd December 1939.
8 De Telegraaf, 24th December 1939.
9 Het Vaderland, 24th December 1939.
10 Paul Keres' Best Games, by Egon Varnusz, Vol. 1, p. 102.
11 Keres quoted in My Great Predecessors, Part 2, by Garry Kasparov, p. 78.
12 The Keres-Euwe Match in Chess Review, April 1940, p. 65, quotes taken from notes by Euwe.
13 My Great Predecessors, Part 2, by Garry Kasparov, p. 82.
14 The Keres-Euwe Match in Chess Review, May 1940, p. 90.
15 The Keres-Euwe Match by Fred Reinfeld, Chess Review, January 1940, p. 27.
16 My Great Predecessors, Part 2, by Garry Kasparov, p. 82.
17 Max Euwe: The Biography, by Alexander Munninghoff, p. 241.
18 Het Volksdagblad, 16th January 1940.
19 Books by Emanuel Lasker quoted in Bibliography of Emanuel Lasker: Second World Chess Champion, by Isaak Linder.
Original collection: Game Collection: Euwe - Keres by User: Chessical. Corrections and amendments to the text were made in the light of the following posts: Euwe - Keres (1939/40) Euwe - Keres (1939/40) by User: chesshistoryinterest
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| page 1 of 1; 14 games |
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| Game |
| Result | Moves |
Year | Event/Locale | Opening |
| 1. Euwe vs Keres |
 | ½-½ | 31 | 1939 | Euwe - Keres 1939/40 | C91 Ruy Lopez, Closed |
| 2. Keres vs Euwe |
| ½-½ | 41 | 1939 | Euwe - Keres 1939/40 | C83 Ruy Lopez, Open |
| 3. Euwe vs Keres |
 | 1-0 | 42 | 1939 | Euwe - Keres 1939/40 | C79 Ruy Lopez, Steinitz Defense Deferred |
| 4. Keres vs Euwe |
| 0-1 | 59 | 1939 | Euwe - Keres 1939/40 | C78 Ruy Lopez |
| 5. Euwe vs Keres |
| 0-1 | 39 | 1939 | Euwe - Keres 1939/40 | E32 Nimzo-Indian, Classical |
| 6. Keres vs Euwe |
| 1-0 | 55 | 1940 | Euwe - Keres 1939/40 | E33 Nimzo-Indian, Classical |
| 7. Euwe vs Keres |
| 1-0 | 30 | 1940 | Euwe - Keres 1939/40 | C91 Ruy Lopez, Closed |
| 8. Keres vs Euwe |
| 1-0 | 35 | 1940 | Euwe - Keres 1939/40 | D10 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav |
| 9. Euwe vs Keres |
| 0-1 | 34 | 1940 | Euwe - Keres 1939/40 | E19 Queen's Indian, Old Main line, 9.Qxc3 |
| 10. Keres vs Euwe |
| 1-0 | 49 | 1940 | Euwe - Keres 1939/40 | E33 Nimzo-Indian, Classical |
| 11. Euwe vs Keres |
| 1-0 | 31 | 1940 | Euwe - Keres 1939/40 | D13 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav, Exchange Variation |
| 12. Keres vs Euwe |
| 1-0 | 23 | 1940 | Euwe - Keres 1939/40 | A09 Reti Opening |
| 13. Euwe vs Keres |
| ½-½ | 23 | 1940 | Euwe - Keres 1939/40 | E19 Queen's Indian, Old Main line, 9.Qxc3 |
| 14. Keres vs Euwe |
| 0-1 | 61 | 1940 | Euwe - Keres 1939/40 | D28 Queen's Gambit Accepted, Classical |
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| May-02-17 | | visayanbraindoctor: One of the most underrated matches in chess history. It was a type of Challengers Match designed to help produce an appropriate Challenger for Alekhine. At this point in time, Keres was undoubtedly the leading candidate for a Title match. He has had the following successes so far: Zandvoort (1936) Third. Keres' second international tournament, which we must consider a success for such a neophyte. (Keres was then 20 years old, which is late for an upcoming master nowadays, but in terms of experience in playing international events was probably the equivalent of 14 year old Carlsen or Karjakin. One should measure seniority in chess not in terms of the absolute age of a chess player but by when he started playing in international events, when he first experiences an international chess competition first hand.) Bad Nauheim (1936) This seems to have been Keres' third international tournament, yet he already tied first with Alekhine. This probably stunned the chess world back then. It announced the rise of a new chess star. Keres' tactically aggressive yet sound style, so much like AAA's, must have also captured the imagination of the chess world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_u... Munich Olympiad 1936: Gold Medal First Board. Success. Kemeri (1937) Kemeri 1937: 4th, tied with Alekhine. Relative success. Parnu (1937) Parnu 1937: 2nd, tied with Stahlberg and Flohr. Relative success. Semmering/Baden (1937) Semmering/Baden 1937: 1st. Ahead of Fine, Reshevsky, Capablanca, Flohr. Another stunning success. Hastings (1937/38). 2nd tied Noordwijk (1938). 2nd AVRO (1938). 1st tied Keres won AVRO 1938, one of history's proto Candidates tournament, at the age of 22. This is about the same age when Tal, Karpov, Kasparov, Carlsen made their successful run at the Candidates. Keres was at his early peak. If 1. he were born later 2. Estonia were independent 3. he made this run in the 1950s or 1960s (without USSR issues), I believe he probably would have become World Champion. Leningrad/Moscow training (1939). Fail. For the first time in years, Keres scored a negative. Keres explains why in the tournament page. Margate (1939). 1st, ahead of Capablanca. Nice rebound after his Leningrad failure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8th_C... Keres playing board 1 led tiny Estonia to third place in Buenos Aires Chess Olympiad 1939. I am not certain of this but I think he turned out the 3rd best performance on Board 1 after Alekhine and Capablanca. (Correct me if I am wrong.) Buenos Aires (1939). 1st tied (with Najdorf) The above was a better record than that of any of the chess stars of the 1930s- Euwe, Flohr, Reshevsky, Fine, Botvinnik. Euwe on the other hand was the ex world champion. Had WW2 not intervened, this match would probably have propelled Keres to a World Championship match with Alekhine. |
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May-02-17
 | | offramp: A match I had not heard of. Many of the European events on mainland Europe in the war years seem a bit hazy. This one has been brought into sharp focus by a superb introduction by User: Chessical. Many thanks to him for a enlightening text. |
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| May-02-17 | | visayanbraindoctor: <offramp: This one has been brought into sharp focus by a superb introduction by User: Chessical. Many thanks to him for a enlightening text.> I second that! Thank you to <Chessical>! BTW here is an interesting scenario. At that time, the World Champion chose his Challenger. If Euwe had never played a match with Alekhine in 1937, but only this match with Keres in 1939, Keres would now be known as the 6th World Champion. Some pundits believe that it took a bit of good luck for even strong chess players to have become World Champions. In Keres' case, we see how a bit of bad luck prevented a strong chess player from becoming World Champion. (Circumstances in the 1930s and WW2, the Soviet annexation of Estonia, a peaking Tal, Smyslov, and Petrosian topping his efforts even if he was probably at least as good as they were for most of their careers.) |
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Jul-18-23
 | | Sally Simpson: I'm up to this match in the Euwe biography I'm reading. I popped in here out of curiosity to see what was being posted about. This page is a labour of love. A wonderful piece of work, one of the best on the site (better than the book!) What a match! 10 positive results on the trot.
Keres ½ ½ 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 ½ 0 7½
Euwe ½ ½ 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 ½ 1 6½
And in amongst all those 1-0's and 0-1's is;
Euwe vs Keres, 1940 |
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| Jul-18-23 | | Olavi: <The day after the conclusion of the match, the Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad newspaper led with the following headlines: The Motor Vessel Arendskerk torpedoed by German submarine and The war enters Finland. Russian terror from the air.> Arendskerk sinking was on the 15th January, but the second headline? The whole of January was uneventful in the Winter War. Well, I suppose an isolated incident happened, or it's fake news, propaganda... |
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Jul-18-23
 | | beatgiant: <Olavi><an isolated incident happened> The headline mentions "terror from the air." Soviet bombing of cities on the Finnish front continued throughout January 1940. According to a calendar here, https://forum.axishistory.com/viewt... Helsinki, Viipuri (Vyborg), Hanko, Turku and others were bombed on 14th Jan., and Viipuri and Turku again on the 15th. |
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| Jul-18-23 | | Olavi: <beatgiant> Correct. I carelessly thought only about the front. |
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Jul-18-23
| | beatgiant: <Olavi> I briefly checked the _NY Times_ archives and the Jan. 17, 1940 edition (p. 12) has a fairly detailed report on the air war, dateline Jan. 16: "FINNS' FLIERS BALK SOVIET AIR THRUSTS" says the headline. |
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| Jul-18-23 | | sudoplatov: Keres commented that Euwe made a mistake in switching openings in the latter part of the match. ( I do not recall where I read this. ) Keres thought the Euwe should have stuck to King Pawn Openings as he was doing well and Keres didn't really have a good answer it seems. Keres didn't usually lose with the Ruy on either side but Euwe got 3 1/2 to Keres' 1 1/2 in the 5 Ruys. |
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| Jul-19-23 | | Olavi: <Sally Simpson> Which Euwe biography is that? Every now and then I come back to Münninghoff's book, and while it is an enjoyable read, it is very unreliable on facts. E.g. on this match it states that Keres agreed to play after returning from Buenos Aires, here we have the Levenbach quote which says the same as Keres in his Selected games, that the agreement was reached before the trip to Argentina. The first Botvinnik - Smyslov match had eight consecutive decided games; otherwise you have to go back to the 19th century I think. (No, Fischer's matches don't count - it's easy if one player loses all...) |
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Jul-19-23
| | beatgiant: <Olavi> There was a thread on streaks of decisive or mostly games in world title matches on Nepomniachtchi - Ding World Championship Match (2023) and I posted a list there Nepomniachtchi - Ding World Championship Match (2023) (kibitz #837) <Tal-Botvinnik 1961: 7 in a row from rounds 7 to 13. Karpov-Korchnoi 1978: 5 of the last 6 games. Kasparov-Karpov 1986: 5 of 6 games from round 14 to 19. Kasparov-Anand 1995: 5 of 6 games from rounds 9 to 14.> Of course that's in addition to Nepomniachtchi-Ding 2003 with 5 of 6 games from round 2 to 7. |
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Jul-19-23
| | beatgiant: And if we extend to other matches, just off the top of my head, Korchnoi-Spassky 1977 candidates had 7 decisive games out of 8 from rounds 7 to 14 and Kasparov-Beliavsky 1983 candidates had 5 out of the last 6. |
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| Jul-19-23 | | Olavi: <beatgiant> And Reshevsky - Najdorf 1952, 6 out of the first seven. |
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| Jul-22-23 | | chesshistoryinterest: The introduction here has a good collection of contemporary articles. But in his own material in it, the writer seems to have some errors and confusion. According to my understanding of the chess history of the time, I say the following. Am happy to debate: (1) <Keres then played for Estonia at the Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires (21st August - 19th September 1939), on the top board (+11 -5 =3)> It's hard to understand where this scoreline came from. In fact, Keres scored +12 -2 =5. This is easily verifiable from the Olimpbase website. (2) <AVRO 1938 - Keres won on tiebreak, having defeated Fine 1½–½ in their individual two games.> This implied tiebreak is not the correct one. As Keres himself says in his writings, the tiebreak was Sonneborn-Berger countback, not Direct Encounter. If Fine had had the superior Sonneborn-Berger, then he would have been declared the winner, despite losing his two games with Keres ½-1½. This error seems fairly pervasive in modern writings - the modern (and in my opinion, inferior) Direct Encounter tiebreak seems to get projected back into historical events where it has no place. (3) <AVRO 1938...its line-up of eight of the top ten players in the world> ? Why "eight of ten"? The 8 selected were clearly the top 8 players in the world at the time. There were no other two. Anyone else may have has an occasional result that matched that of the top 8, but very rarely - not consistently. Indeed, as far as I am aware, AVRO remains the only tournament in history that had the top 8 players in the world, and only them. (4) <Keres was FIDE's challenger to Alekhine for the world championship> < This tournament (AVRO 1938) should have decided the next FIDE challenger and so determined the next world title challenger.> This is nonsense. FIDE had zero say as to whether the winner of AVRO would be Alekhine's challenger. It was a private arrangement, though it would appear that the AVRO organisers hadn't in fact obtained Alekhine's specific agreement to this. In 1937, FIDE declared Flohr to be the next challenger. This decision was met with almost universal contempt and derision - Flohr had done very badly at Moscow 1936 and Nottingham 1936 and had lost nearly all of his credibility to be a challenger. Alekhine nevertheless accepted the challenge (perhaps as a way of avoiding Capa) and this was fully in force as at June 1938 when Flohr beat Mikenas 8-2 in a training match arranged for the purpose. But Czechoslovak funding for the match was then derailed because of Nazi threats to Czechoslovakia over the Sudetenland. After that, AVRO did their thing, and it had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with FIDE - any input from them would at this stage have been treated with utter contempt and dismissed. Thus to say Keres was "FIDE's challenger" is complete nonsense - FIDE had nothing to do with it. (5) <after his great victory at AVRO, Keres was feted in municipal celebrations across his native Estonia. He played a match against Gideon Stahlberg (in Gothenburg, 20th April - 1st May 1938) which ended with a draw (+2 =4 -2, Keres - Stahlberg (1938). With little time to rest and prepare, he played indifferently in the Leningrad/Moscow training (1939) (3rd January - 1st February), ending shared 12th.> The sentence <He played a match against Gideon Stahlberg (in Gothenburg, 20th April - 1st May 1938) which ended with a draw (+2 =4 -2, Keres - Stahlberg (1938).> is completely out of context here and disrupts the narrative. The <With little time to rest and prepare> refers to <after his great victory at AVRO, Keres was feted in municipal celebrations across his native Estonia.> The Stahlberg match is irrelevant here, and in any case is already mentioned further up.
And I would suggest that <indifferently> is hardly strong enough a word. "Indifferent" might suggest a placing of about 5th, but a placing of 12-13= for a World Championship challenger is simply disastrous. (6) <He won the tournament in Margate (1939) (in April), ahead of Capablanca.> I would suggest adding "and Flohr" here, as Keres did in his writings. Flohr finished 2-3= with Capa at this event and was around the same strength as him at the time. (Continued next post) |
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| Jul-22-23 | | chesshistoryinterest: (Continuing from previous post)
(7) <(After the 1939 Olympiad), the members of the German team, including their best player Erich Eliskases, chose to remain in Argentina, as did most elite players such as Miguel Najdorf and Gideon Stahlberg.> In my opinion, this is another misperception. In fact, "most of the elite players" did not remain in Argentina. The players who remained were, apart from the German team (who likely did not have much "choice" as they would likely have been intercepted and arrested by the British had they attempted to return), mostly Jewish players from eastern European countries - for an obvious reason. The only significant exception was Stahlberg. So of the elite players, Eliskases, Najdorf and Stahlberg remained in Argentina. Those who did not included Alekhine, Capablanca, Keres, Tartakover, Petrovs, Mikenas, Schmidt, Lundin, Foltys, Opocensky, etc... So in fact, most elite players did not remain in Argentina. (8) <Unfortunately, this was not to be. The day after the conclusion of the match, the Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad newspaper led with the following headlines: The Motor Vessel Arendskerk torpedoed by German submarine and The war enters Finland. Russian terror from the air.> I don't see the relevance of this. These were just normal day-to-day happenings in a war that hadn't become widespread yet - these two events had no influence on the intended 1941 match not taking place. (9) <Soon afterwards, on 6th August 1940, Estonia too was occupied - by the Soviet Union.> Estonia was not "occupied" on this date - this was in fact the date that Estonia was formally annexed by the Soviet Union. The actual occupation of Estonia in fact occurred on 16-17 June 1940. General observation by me: It is correct to say that the match had already been agreed before Keres left for the Olympiad - the Estonian newspapers say the same thing.
Keres intended a tour of the USA, but says when he got a telegram from Euwe saying all the arrangements for the match were in place, he "hurried back home". In my opinion, he made a huge mistake in doing this, I think he should have stayed in the USA for the duration of the war. Already on 28 September 1939, 9 days after the end of the Olympiad, Estonia was forced to sign the "Soviet-Estonian Mutual Assistance" Treaty allowing the Soviets to establish military bases in Estonia - Estonia was clearly being lined up for annexation. Indeed, the Estonians could count themselves lucky that this didn't happen already, but Stalin moved gradually on this for fear of angering the Western powers too much and (in his mind) possibly provoking them to agree a peace with Hitler - his worst nightmare. So Stalin waited, and then in June 1940, the collapse of France happened, after which that calculation no longer had much relevance. He then moved fast - a now unrestrained-on-land-in-the-west Hitler might not continue to honour the Soviet-Nazi pact, so he better grab his share in the pact fast! Of course, Keres did not know this; as far as he could know, Estonia was in great danger from September 1939 onwards and complete Soviet takeover could happen at any time. |
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Aug-17-23
| | Sally Simpson: Hi Olavi,
Sorry for the delay in replying I never noticed your post. Yes it is the Münninghoff book which I recently finished. It is now in the club library and I've been recommending it to everyone to take it out. Although I sensed perhaps artistic license here and there I went along with it. A good book. I never knew Euwe went professional as a chess player for a couple of years. |
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| Aug-18-23 | | Olavi: <Sally Simpson>
There are some embarrassing mistakes. It should have been possible to check between 1976 and 2001, the Dutch and English editions, this central bit of information - central for Kmoch's encouragement: "Alekhine's loss against (...) Lilienthal (...) Alekhine had been outplayed in a series of complicated tactical manoeuvres." No such game exists. On the contrary in the Hastings tournament referred to Alekhine beat Lilianthal in tactics... There are more. |
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Aug-18-23
| | Sally Simpson: Hi Olavi,
Thank You.
As I said I guessed this may not be right here and there but I never went probing. Also it was not my book, it is in the club library. if it was I may have dived deeper as then I can scribble corrections all over it. I was taking in with all the background to the Alekhine - Match though I skipped the games as I had seen them before. Next time I rec it I'll add there are a few (or quite a few) inaccuracies but still a good read...for free. |
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