Max Euwe - Early Career

Early Career

Euwe won every Dutch chess championship that he participated in from 1921 until 1952, and additionally won the title in 1955 – his 12 titles are still a record. The only other winners during this period were Salo Landau in 1936, when Euwe, then world champion, did not compete, and Jan Hein Donner in 1954. He became the world amateur chess champion in 1928, at The Hague, with a score of 12/15.

Euwe had a young family and could only play competitive chess during school vacations, so his opportunities for international chess competition at the top level were limited. But he performed well in the few tournaments and matches for which he could find time from the early 1920s to the mid 1930s. Fine comments, "Euwe's main international successes came in the form of narrow defeats" – but these were in matches against the world's best: Alekhine (1926), Capablanca (1931), and Spielmann (1935); and Euwe drew a match with Flohr in 1932. His playing strength gradually increased, so that by 1932 he and Flohr were regarded as Alekhine's most credible challengers.

At Zürich 1934, Euwe finished second, behind only World Champion Alexander Alekhine, and he defeated Alekhine in their game. Alekhine was in an eight-year stretch, from 1927–35, where he lost only six games in tournament play.