Chess match between Alexander Alekhine and Max Euwe
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A World Chess Championship was played between challenger Max Euwe and title-holder Alexander Alekhine in various cities and towns in the Netherlands from 3 October to 16 December 1935. Euwe was the winner by overcoming a three-point deficit as late as the ninth game.
The first game of the match was won by Alekhine in 30 moves. The defending champion began the game with his Queen's Pawn, and Euwe chose the Slav Defense in response. Inaccurate play by Euwe (most notably 17...Qa5?, allowing the active continuation 18.Nd4 Bc8 19.b4!, a temporary pawn sacrifice which, if accepted, would have granted Alekhine significant activity) gave Alekhine a sizeable edge in view of Euwe's awkward piece placement and Alekhine's extra queenside space. 24...Qa5? allowed Alekhine to make a favourable piece exchange, leaving Euwe with a passive bishop restricted by its own pawns against Alekhine's excellently placed knight on f5. Euwe found himself powerless to prevent Alekhine's pieces from reaching their optimal squares, eventually culminating in the final blow 29.Nh6+!, where 29...gxh6 would have allowed 30.Qxh7#. This left only 29...Kh8, but after 30.Qxc5 Euwe resigned, as the aversion of immediate mate can only be achieved through decisive surrendering of material. For example, 30...Re8 allows 31.Qd5 or 31.Qc4, threatening a smothered mate with 32.Qg8+ Rxg8 33.Nf7#. 31...gxh6 prevents this, but enables 32.Qf7, when mate on h7 or g7 is indefensible.
Euwe won Game 2 in 45 moves. Euwe played 1.d4 and Alekhine responded with the Grunfeld Defense. Euwe opted for the Russian Variation, an ambitious attempt to seize the centre without allowing the exchange of knights that occurs in the main line Exchange Variation. Alekhine pursued quick development, resulting in a complicated early middlegame in which both players committed errors. 13...Nd6? is given as a mistake by Euwe, who instead gives 13...Nd4! 14.f4 Bd6 15.fxe5 Bxe5 as equal. He is also critical of his own 15.Be3?, preferring the immediate clarification of the central tension with 15.fxe5. Alekhine gave up a pawn with 15...Ng4 in return for an unopposed dark-squared bishop, which soon found its way to the influential posting of g5. However, Euwe also gained the half-open h-file for his rook, in addition to a central and kingside space advantage. Alekhine sought counterplay on the queenside with 27...c6, seeking to open lines towards Euwe's king. Euwe countered this by castling and moving his king to relative safety on h3. He chose to give up his newly created passed b6 pawn in return for another one on d5, but this allowed Alekhine a chance to get back in the game with 39...Rc8!, as 40.Rxc8 Qxc8 41.Qf7+ Kh8 leads to nothing special for white. Instead, Alekhine played 39...Rxc6?, allowing Euwe's pawn to take a significant step towards promotion and clearing the a2-g8 diagonal. Euwe immediately exploited this latter aspect with 41.Bc4, the sealed move. When play resumed after the adjournment, Euwe continued to pressure the black position with 42.Qh1!, threatening 43.Kg2+ Kg7 44.Rf7+ winning the black queen. Alekhine avoided this, but soon erred further with 43...Qe8?, possibly overlooking Euwe's 45.Qb7!, when 45...Rxc4 allows 46.Rxh7+ Kxh7 47.c8=Q+ (a discovered check from the queen on b7) 47...Qe7 48.Qxe7+ Bxe7 49.Qxc4 with a huge advantage in material. Therefore, Alekhine resigned.
Game 3 was won by Alekhine in 41 moves. He opened with 1.e4, and Euwe chose the French Defense and the double-edged Winawer Variation. Alekhine's 4.a3 was at the time a highly uncommon continuation, although Euwe suggested it had been examined before. In the imbalanced and complicated position that resulted, Euwe was the first to err with 10...Rg6?!, attacking the queen but subtly misplacing the rook for the ensuing middlegame. Alekhine exploited this with the decisive transfer of his light-squared bishop to e4 via h5, threatening the rook, and f3, with the threat of Nh5, forking queen and rook. The placement of Alekhine's bishop provoked Euwe into playing the weakening 19...f5, after which White's advantage was clear. Alekhine converted without much difficulty.
Alekhine won Game 4 in 44 moves, the first occasion in the match where the player with the black pieces prevailed. Opening play followed Game 2 until Alekhine deviated with 5...Bg7, which remains the most common move in top-level chess. With 8...b5!? Alekhine accepted a weak pawn on c6 in exchange for active play. Euwe's lack of kingside development gave Alekhine just enough time to activate his pieces and strike with 15...c5!, sacrificing a pawn for the bishop pair and keeping the white king stuck in the centre for the moment. The key moment arose after Alekhine's 17...Qb5. With 18.e4! Euwe would have secured the possibility of moving his bishop from d2 to either e3 or f4, thus defending his knight on e2 with his queen and preparing to castle. However, 18.Nf4? was too slow and Alekhine continued to play actively with 18...Bg4! and 20...exd4!, sacrificing the bishop to demolish white's pawn centre, thus exposing the white king to a crushing attack.
Game 5 was the first draw of the match and was agreed after 34 moves. As in Game 3, Euwe employed the Winawer against 1.e4, but Alekhine deviated with 4.Nge2, taking the game into quieter territory. Pieces were gradually exchanged off until the players reached an endgame where Alekhine had a slightly more active position, but was unable to make any use of this due to his shattered queenside structure.
Game 6 was the longest of the match, eventually drawn in 73 moves. Alekhine chose the Slav Defense for the first time. Euwe opted for the quiet 4.e3, obtaining a slight edge out of the opening due to his space advantage in the centre.
Alekhine won Game 7 in 40 moves. Play followed Game 5 until Alekhine deviated with 7.g4, a riskier option which signalled his intention to take the game into sharper territory than seen in the earlier game. Alekhine continued to play aggressively with 11.g5 and 14.Nf6!, based on 14...gxf6?! 15.gxf6 Bxf6?? 16.Be4, mating. This fact granted Alekhine the bishop pair, but Euwe generated counterplay along the open d-file, trapping the white king in the centre with his actively placed queen on d3. However, 22...Qe4? was a key error, allowing Alekhine to alleviate the pressure by exchanging queens, greatly reducing the relevance of his king's central location and magnifying the importance of the bishop pair in the open position. Instead, 22...Qc2 would have kept the queens on the board and posed Alekhine some difficulties in completing development. Instead, the endgame resulting from 23.Qxe4 dxe4 as played in the game is lost for Black in view of White's bishop pair, greater activity and superior pawn structure. Euwe succeeded in exchanging the light-squared bishops, but at the cost of allowing one of Alekhine's rooks to entrench itself on the seventh rank, soon costing Euwe two pawns. Euwe resigned after 40.Rh4, when any semblance of counterplay has been all but eliminated. With this victory, Alekhine extended his lead to three games.
Game 8 was won by Euwe in 69 moves. Again, Alekhine went for the Slav, but opted to allow a transposition to the Semi-Slav with 4...e6 instead of 4...Bf5 as in Game 6. Alekhine's 10...Qb6?! has been superseded by 10...Bd7 in modern practice, most notably Ponomariov-Toplaov, Sofia (2006). One reason is that the natural 11.Rc1 as played by Euwe forces Bd7 anyway, whereas after 10...Bd7 Black can meet 11.Rc1 with 11...c5, opening up an attack on the white queen. In this game, after 12.Ne5, Alekhine felt obliged to capture on b2, temporarily going up a pawn but falling further behind in development. Euwe found an innovative way of completing development with 15.Ke2, allowing the kingside rook to develop with the need to castle, as this was impossible due to the black queen's pressure on the dark-squared bishop. The king was also better placed on e2 than it would have been on g1 in the resulting endgame. Euwe stood substantially better due to his bishop pair and passed a-pawn. Alekhine gave up a pawn to transition the game to a rook and opposite-coloured bishops ending, but the survival of Euwe's passed pawn on a6 ensured he had excellent winning chances. The final 69.Ba6!, the only winning move, is a nice touch, as if 69...Rxa6 then 70.Rd8+ will also cover the pawn's queening square, allowing promotion on the next move. Black would be forced to give up the rook for the new queen, leaving Euwe up the exchange and a pawn, with a winning endgame. Thus, Euwe cut the deficit to two games.
Game was won by Alekhine in 41 moves. For the fourth consecutive game where Alekhine had the white pieces, the players entered the Winawer Variation of the French Defense. However, Alekhine played 4.Qg4, a move thus far unseen in the match. The move essentially forces black to sacrifice the g7 pawn for activity, resulting in sharp play. Alekhine ultimately had the better of a complicated struggle, emerging with an extra, passed, h-pawn, which ultimately cost Euwe his bishop.
Euwe won Game 10 in 41 moves. Opening play followed Game 8 until Alekhine deviated with 6...Nbd7. 8...Ne4? is a significant positional mistake, allowing Euwe to create a target on e4 to attack and set up a bind on the central and queenside dark squares. Alekhine was forced into increasingly desperate measures to shake Euwe's control, sacrificing a pawn with 21...e5 to allow his light-squared bishop to develop. Alekhine strove to open up lines towards Euwe's king, but 28...h4? was too hasty, and after 29.gxh4 Qxh4 30.Ng6, he was losing the exchange, an advantage which Euwe swiftly converted, ending the game with 41.Rxc6! as 41...bxc6 allows 42.b7 and promotion next move.
Game 11 was drawn in 30 moves. Alekhine reverted to 1.d4 for the first time since Game 1. As before, Euwe chose the Slav Defense in response. Alekhine deviated with 4.e3, the so-called Quiet Variation and 5.cxd5 further indicated his unambitious intentions, as the resulting pawn structure is symmetrical and the position offers limited chances for either side to outplay the other. A drawn queen and bishop endgame swiftly occurred.
Euwe won Game 12 in 36 moves to cut Alekhine's lead to a single game. Opening play followed Game 4 until Euwe deviated with 6.e4. Alekhine sacrificed a pawn but was the first to err with 9...Qe8?, after which black's compensation for the pawn is virtually nothing. Alekhine chose to give up a piece to rid white of his centre, but Euwe comfortably consolidated and efficiently converted.
Alexander Alekhine
Max Euwe