Max Euwe

Max Euwe was born in Watergraafsmeer, Amsterdam, in 1901. He studied mathematics at the University of Amsterdam and earned his doctorate in 1926. He worked as a mathematics teacher while competing internationally, often arranging chess around school holidays. He won twelve Dutch championships and the World Amateur Championship at The Hague in 1928. Matches with Alexander Alekhine, José Raúl Capablanca and Salo Flohr helped prepare him for a world-title challenge.

In 1935 Euwe defeated Alekhine by fifteen and a half points to fourteen and a half in a thirty-game match held across the Netherlands. He became the fifth world champion and the first Dutch player to hold the title. Alekhine regained the championship in their 1937 rematch. Euwe later took part in the five-player tournament that decided the world title in 1948. FIDE awarded him the Grandmaster title in 1950, when its international title system began.

After the Second World War, Euwe developed an academic interest in computing and held professorships in the Netherlands. He served as FIDE president from 1970 to 1978, overseeing the organisation during the Fischer-Spassky championship and disputes over Soviet defectors’ right to compete. His instructional books include Judgement and Planning in Chess and The Road to Chess Mastery, the latter written with Walter Meiden. He died in Amsterdam in 1981.