AVRO (1938) In November 1938 a Dutch radio company AVRO (1) organized and sponsored what was up to that time the strongest tournament (2) ever held. AVRO (Algemeene Vereeniging voor Radio Omroep - literally the General Association for Radio Broadcasting) brought together the World Champion and every one of his major challengers. It ran from the 6th of November to the 27th of November 1938 with the players based in Amsterdam and each successive round played in a different Dutch town. This tournament schedule proved to be tough for the older competitors and Capablanca and Alyekhin did not fare as well as might have been expected. In the end Keres and Fine finished in joint first place with Keres declared the winner as a result of a better tie-break score. Pts 1. Keres ** 1½ ½½ ½½ ½½ 1½ 1½ ½½ 8½ 2. Fine 0½ ** 1½ 11 10 10 ½½ 1½ 8½ 3. Botvinnik ½½ 0½ ** 1½ ½0 1½ ½1 ½½ 7½ 4. Alyekhin ½½ 00 0½ ** 1½ ½½ ½1 ½1 7 5. Euwe ½½ 01 ½1 0½ ** 0½ 01 1½ 7 6. Reshevsky 0½ 01 0½ ½½ 1½ ** ½½ 1½ 7 7. Capablanca 0½ ½½ ½0 ½0 10 ½½ ** 1½ 6 8. Flohr ½½ 0½ ½½ ½0 0½ 0½ 0½ ** 4½ References: (1) http://www.avro.nl/ , (2) http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVRO... Original Collection : Game Collection: AVRO 1938, by User: Benzol  page 1 of 3; games 1-25 of 56  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. Alekhine vs Reshevsky ½-½ 60 1938 AVRO E20 Nimzo-Indian 2. Flohr vs Capablanca   ½-½ 41 1938 AVRO D19 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav, Dutch 3. Fine vs Botvinnik 1-0 31 1938 AVRO C17 French, Winawer, Advance 4. Euwe vs Keres   ½-½ 40 1938 AVRO E00 Queen's Pawn Game 5. Capablanca vs Alekhine ½-½ 48 1938 AVRO E17 Queen's Indian 6. Reshevsky vs Fine 0-1 37 1938 AVRO E10 Queen's Pawn Game 7. Keres vs Botvinnik   ½-½ 26 1938 AVRO E17 Queen's Indian 8. Euwe vs Flohr 1-0 32 1938 AVRO E11 Bogo-Indian Defense 9. Alekhine vs Euwe 1-0 41 1938 AVRO D14 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav, Exchange Variation 10. Flohr vs Keres   ½-½ 23 1938 AVRO E12 Queen's Indian 11. Botvinnik vs Reshevsky 1-0 37 1938 AVRO A25 English 12. Fine vs Capablanca ½-½ 44 1938 AVRO C17 French, Winawer, Advance 13. Keres vs Reshevsky 1-0 44 1938 AVRO C79 Ruy Lopez, Steinitz Defense Deferred 14. Capablanca vs Botvinnik ½-½ 26 1938 AVRO D93 Grunfeld, with Bf4 & e3 15. Flohr vs Alekhine   ½-½ 23 1938 AVRO E15 Queen's Indian 16. Euwe vs Fine 0-1 44 1938 AVRO D30 Queen's Gambit Declined 17. Botvinnik vs Euwe   ½-½ 41 1938 AVRO A13 English 18. Fine vs Flohr 1-0 28 1938 AVRO C17 French, Winawer, Advance 19. Reshevsky vs Capablanca ½-½ 56 1938 AVRO E37 Nimzo-Indian, Classical 20. Alekhine vs Keres ½-½ 42 1938 AVRO E58 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3, Main line with 8...Bxc3 21. Euwe vs Reshevsky 0-1 56 1938 AVRO D70 Neo-Grunfeld Defense 22. Keres vs Capablanca 1-0 38 1938 AVRO C09 French, Tarrasch, Open Variation, Main line 23. Flohr vs Botvinnik ½-½ 42 1938 AVRO D84 Grunfeld, Grunfeld Gambit Accepted 24. Alekhine vs Fine 0-1 68 1938 AVRO C83 Ruy Lopez, Open 25. Capablanca vs Euwe 1-0 40 1938 AVRO E34 Nimzo-Indian, Classical, Noa Variation  page 1 of 3; games 1-25 of 56    REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2)     < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing> Feb-02-13    Benzol: Here's a little of what Botvinnik had to say about this tourney "...the AVRO tournament, one of the most outstanding events in the history of chess. The eight undoubtedly strongest chess players in the world met in a two-cycle tournament. Credit is due to the Dutch organizers for bringing them all together, in spite of the fact that the two most outstanding participants, Capablanca and Alekhine, were enemies and were not on speaking terms. But one cannot help recalling the intolerable tournament programme, when on playing days the participants often had to do without dinner. This time they spent on the train, as the event was held in many Dutch towns. It is little wonder that the oldest participant, the fifty-year-old Capablanca, finished in last but one place. Nothing remotely similar ever happened in his career". Feb-03-13    Eggman: <<FSR>> But again, where else are you going to have a tournament in which all the participants are rated with 33 points of the world's number 1 player? It's almost like having a tournament in which all 8 players are tied for 1st in the world rankings. Feb-03-13    Eyal: <According to Chessmetrics January 1938 list, the 8 participants at AVRO 1938 were the top 8 players in the world. And the difference between #1 Alekhine and #8 Keres was only 33 points. That's 8 players within 33 points of being ranked #1, all in the same tournament! Surely this is the strongest tournament ever held.> Not that it terribly matters, but the relevant rating list for this tournament is that of November 1938 (http://www.chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/...), rather than January. Still a very similar picture, though according to this list the difference between #1 (Botvinnik) and #8 (Euwe) was 47 points. Feb-03-13    solskytz: It looks like they've really wiped the Flohr with him Feb-03-13    solskytz: It's amazing how even back then, pampered goldfish were invited based on nothing but their chessmetrics ratings. Where is justice, I ask?! Feb-03-13    perfidious: <solskytz> You want justice, pal?! Best of luck with that idea! No way, nohow the organisers would have let a young fiend in on their little parade. Feb-04-13    solskytz: Lol Perfidious - as I was writing my previous comment I was already sniffing the scent of your presence, which I knew would soon follow to grace this page. Amazing how just preferentialism (does the word even exist?) of strong players, just acts as a doorstop to not let third and fourth tier players weasel so bravely their way into the top tournaments! (I was hoping that someone would use this wordplay in a bit more literate way... it's still a diamond in the rough - but soon making 2700, I promise) - - - - - - - - - - disclaimer: the pun above is nothing from me against the player himself. It takes enormous talent, true ability and application to make it to his playing strength and world standing at any age, more so at an age as young as his. I personally do find his career amazing from all respects - although I must confess to not having studied his games yet. I've personally known some players in the 2500-2550 level and these are very bright and brilliant people, with a shining mastery of the game that is just frightfully precise and forceful. Someone as close to 2700 as the leading Filipino, I have yet to encounter, and I'm sure he'll boggle my mind. Feb-04-13    Benzol: <solskytz> <It's amazing how even back then, pampered goldfish were invited based on nothing but their chessmetrics ratings> Chessmetrics ratings must have been around a lot longer than I first thought. :) Feb-04-13    solskytz: <Benzol> I think that they were invented at some inspired point in ancient times - probably by Zoroaster - and lay there waiting for 500 years until some bright fella invented chess. Much like that famous building in Florence, whose first two floors date from the 14th century, but the roof was built on the 12th (and of course was hanging there in mid-air for 200 years until someone bothered to put a building under it). Many thanks for explaining my joke! :-) Feb-04-13    TheFocus: <Chessmetrics ratings must have been around a lot longer than I first thought.> On the very first lists by Chessmetrics, you will find such names as <Fred Flintstone>, <Barney Rubble>, <Og Neanderthal>, <Alley Oop>, and <Noah>, the inventor of the Noah's Ark Trap. Feb-04-13    solskytz: Somebody just had to invent a game, to give some use to these mysterious ratings - and thus chess was born Feb-08-13    Eggman: <<solskytz: It looks like they've really wiped the Flohr with him>> "In 1937 FIDE designated Flohr the 'official' challenger for the world title. Alekhine accepted the challenge in 1938. The Bata shoe company agreed to sponsor Flohr but, at what might have been the high point of his career, political uncertainty prevented Bata from maintaining its support. Of Jewish birth, and anticipating the complete occupation of his country by anti-Semitic invaders, who had by October 1938 occupied a part, he was seeking a new home in the USSR, where he had spent a few months earlier in the year. In this worried frame of mind he played in the great AVRO tournament, November 1938, where the world's best eight players completed in a double-round contest. Keres and Fine shared first place, Flohr came last. To some extent Flohr restored his reputation when he won (+8 =8 -1), ahead of Reshevsky and Keres, a training tournament at Moscow and Leningrad in January 1939." -The Oxford Companion To Chess Feb-08-13    solskytz: A very interesting piece of biography. I had no idea. Feb-08-13    Eggman: <<solskytz>> Good pun on your part, though. Feb-08-13    solskytz: I wonder if you refer to the one about Flohr, or the one related to another excellent player of our own era... Feb-09-13    Eggman: The Moscow / Leningrad training tournament where Flohr triumphed has a page here: Leningrad/Moscow training (1939). Feb-09-13    solskytz: Quite an impressive triumph, although fleeing the Nazis at the last moment and leading a prolific life thereafter was certainly the much greater victory. Mar-11-13    IndigoViolet: Was this the first tournament to bear (excluding the Rice Memorial in 1916) the sponsor's name? Mar-11-13    RookFile: I think the Hastings chess club organized Hastings, didn't it? Mar-11-13    Olavi: And the Panhans hotel the tournament by that name, on the Semmering. Mar-12-13    IndigoViolet: Any sensible replies? Mar-12-13    Phony Benoni: I've been trying to think of an earlier tournament named after a corporate sponsor, but nothing comes to mind. Individuals and clubs, yes, but even tournaments sponsored by spas and casinos are generally known by geographic names. Mar-12-13    Olavi: Probably not, if only major international ones are eligible. Is there a tournament named after an individual before the Kaiser-Jubiläum of 1898? Mar-12-13    Olavi: And then there is one. Amsterdam (1936) was called the Arbeiderspers tournament. It was and is a publisher. Indeed many earlier Dutch tournaments have acronyms attached to them, but they are probably clubs etc. Mar-12-13    IndigoViolet: <And then there is one.> Forgive me, but the image of ten Maurice Ashleys flashed before my eyes. < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing> NOTE: You need to pick a username and password to post a reply. Getting your account takes less than a minute, totally anonymous, and 100% free--plus, it entitles you to features otherwise unavailable. Pick your username now and join the chessgames community! If you already have an account, you should login now. Please observe our posting guidelines: No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language. No spamming, advertising, or duplicating posts. No personal attacks against other users. 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