| AVRO (1938) |
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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 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 rigorous for the older competitors and Capablanca and Alekhine 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. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
=1 Keres ** 1½ ½½ ½½ ½½ 1½ 1½ ½½ 8½
=1 Fine 0½ ** 1½ 11 10 10 ½½ 1½ 8½
3 Botvinnik ½½ 0½ ** 1½ ½0 1½ ½1 ½½ 7½
=4 Alekhine ½½ 00 0½ ** 1½ ½½ ½1 ½1 7
=4 Euwe ½½ 01 ½1 0½ ** 0½ 01 1½ 7
=4 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
(1) http://www.avro.nl/, (2) Wikipedia article: AVRO 1938 chess tournament. The main source for this collection was A.V.R.O. 1938 Chess Tournament, 'B.C.M.' Classic Reprint No. 12. ISBN 900846 10 0.Original collection: Game Collection: AVRO 1938, by User: Benzol.
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| page 1 of 3; games 1-25 of 56 |
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| Game |
| Result | Moves |
Year | Event/Locale | Opening |
| 1. Flohr vs Capablanca |
  | ½-½ | 41 | 1938 | AVRO | D19 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav, Dutch |
| 2. Alekhine vs Reshevsky |
| ½-½ | 60 | 1938 | AVRO | E20 Nimzo-Indian |
| 3. Euwe vs Keres |
| ½-½ | 40 | 1938 | AVRO | A84 Dutch |
| 4. Fine vs Botvinnik |
 | 1-0 | 31 | 1938 | AVRO | C17 French, Winawer, Advance |
| 5. Capablanca vs Alekhine |
| ½-½ | 48 | 1938 | AVRO | E17 Queen's Indian |
| 6. Reshevsky vs Fine |
| 0-1 | 37 | 1938 | AVRO | E04 Catalan, Open, 5.Nf3 |
| 7. Euwe vs Flohr |
| 1-0 | 32 | 1938 | AVRO | E11 Bogo-Indian Defense |
| 8. Keres vs Botvinnik |
| ½-½ | 26 | 1938 | AVRO | E17 Queen's Indian |
| 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. Fine vs Capablanca |
| ½-½ | 44 | 1938 | AVRO | C17 French, Winawer, Advance |
| 12. Botvinnik vs Reshevsky |
| 1-0 | 37 | 1938 | AVRO | A25 English |
| 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. Reshevsky vs Capablanca |
| ½-½ | 56 | 1938 | AVRO | E37 Nimzo-Indian, Classical |
| 18. Botvinnik vs Euwe |
| ½-½ | 41 | 1938 | AVRO | A13 English |
| 19. Fine vs Flohr |
| 1-0 | 28 | 1938 | AVRO | C17 French, Winawer, Advance |
| 20. Alekhine vs Keres |
| ½-½ | 42 | 1938 | AVRO | E58 Nimzo-Indian, 4.e3, Main line with 8...Bxc3 |
| 21. Keres vs Capablanca |
| 1-0 | 38 | 1938 | AVRO | C09 French, Tarrasch, Open Variation, Main line |
| 22. Alekhine vs Fine |
| 0-1 | 68 | 1938 | AVRO | C83 Ruy Lopez, Open |
| 23. Flohr vs Botvinnik |
| ½-½ | 42 | 1938 | AVRO | D84 Grunfeld, Grunfeld Gambit Accepted |
| 24. Euwe vs Reshevsky |
| 0-1 | 56 | 1938 | AVRO | D70 Neo-Grunfeld Defense |
| 25. Reshevsky vs Flohr |
| 1-0 | 44 | 1938 | AVRO | D81 Grunfeld, Russian Variation |
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| page 1 of 3; games 1-25 of 56 |
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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 12 OF 13 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
| Sep-20-18 | | Lambda: <Well, how to compare tournament strengths across generations, then?> With difficulty. The trouble is, if you ask "is this player from X era stronger than this player from Y era", it isn't even clear what you're enquiring about. You might think it's something like "if a time traveller was to pick them both up from these points in their career and had then play each other in their time machine, who would come out better?" but this means you're allowing for statements like "a player who lives in an era where it's known white's queen's bishop should go to f4 or g5 in the QGD is stronger, all else being equal, than someone who lives in an era where it's thought b2 is best" which is a bit silly, really. It's like comparing Federer and Laver in tennis by going "well, Federer has a better racket..." |
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| Sep-20-18 | | newzild: <Lambda> Yes, I agree. I cannot think of any method better than Chessmetrics, which is at least based on an algorithm. |
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| Apr-13-19 | | whiteshark: <AVRO FACTS AND TRIVIA> 1. In the entire tournament of 56 games not one Sicilian Defense was played. 2. <Reshevsky> was in time trouble in 12 of the 14 games he played. 3. The first 8 moves between <Capablanca and Reshevsky> in a game they played in AVRO took exactly one hour. Nothing startling in that, but this was the break down: Reshevsky 58 minutes
Capablanca 2 minutes
(Taken from the <Fireside Book of
Chess> by Reinfeld and Chernev)
Which one? Reshevsky vs Capablanca, 1938 or Capablanca vs Reshevsky, 1938 Source: A.V.R.O. 1938 by Arthur S Antler |
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Apr-13-19
 | | beatgiant: <whiteshark>
It was Capablanca vs Reshevsky, 1938 According to a kibitz on that game, Reshevsky spent 50 minutes on a single move. |
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| Apr-13-19 | | whiteshark: Thanks <beatgiant>!! I only checked in the above mentioned book and somehow didn't get the idea to trust our community here. Man, I'm really getting old... |
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Jun-07-22
 | | kingscrusher: Rare audio recoding of Capablanca for this tournament: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzk... |
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| Aug-14-24 | | ewan14: At least Keres finished ahead of Botvinnik before Estonia was invaded |
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| Feb-04-25 | | Petrosianic: I've never been clear how this tournament was tiebroken. Several sources say that Keres won on tiebreak, but not how. Of course Keres wins on Sonnenborn, and head to head. But in an interview, Euwe once told Benko that he thought Keres was given first because Fine was Jewish. What on earth does that mean? Did he think Fine should have won on tiebreak (how?)? Or did he mean there shouldn't have been any tiebreaks? Were tiebreaks announced in advance? And how was the money divided? Equal split, or did Keres get a bigger share? The world title situation was meaningless, as Alekhine had announced before the end of the tournament that he wouldn't feel obligated to play the winner, and Flohr was still FIDE's "official" challenger. Wikipedia says that Keres won on head-to-head tiebreaks, but without a cite, that's meaningless. I once checked Chess Review, but their tournament coverage is usually awful. Just random annotated games with very little to say about the event as a whole. (Much like a Gotham Chess or Finegold video, in fact). Beyond describing both Keres and Fine as "the winners", Chess Review had nothing to say. They didn't even mention that there'd been a tiebreak, much less how it was done. |
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| Feb-04-25 | | whiteshark: <Petrosianic> I would also prefer to read a tournament announcement, but the following explanation is the closest I can come to it: "The AVRO Tournament 1938 comes to an end. After 13 of 14 rounds Paul Keres and Reuben Fine have 8.0/13 each and lead the field. In the last round they play against each other. The winner of this game will also win the tournament. <In case of a draw Keres is first on tiebreak because he won against Fine in round 7.>" (Fine vs Keres, 1938) Source: https://en.chessbase.com/post/avro-... |
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Feb-04-25
| | beatgiant: <Petrosianic> The Wikipedia article actually has the following: "Paul Keres and Reuben Fine tied for first place, with Keres winning on tiebreak by virtue of his 1½-½ score in their individual games.... "The tiebreak method was the Sonneborn–Berger score.[2]" The citation goes to an article in ChessBase here: https://en.chessbase.com/post/avro-... And this indeed says that the tiebreak was the SB score, and the reason Keres had a better SB score was his plus against Fine. The point is, SB score rewards wins against top-scoring opponents, and there wasn't any third top-scoring player Fine could beat to catch up with Keres. Unfortunately, that ChessBase article isn't a proper source. I don't even see an author's byline, much less any sources cited. |
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| Feb-04-25 | | unferth: A wire-service story in the Nov. 28 1938 Winnipeg Tribune is headlined "International Chess Tourney Ends in Tie" and says, "Paul Keres of Estonia and Reuben Fine of New York agreed to draw after 19 moves and will receive equal shares of the first and second prize money." The Dec. 7 Atlantic City Press says, "Keres and Fine tie for first place with Botvinnik third! The great tournament is completed and the two youngest players share first and second prize money." The Montreal Gazette of Dec. 8 calls them "co-winners" and also notes, "The current issue of 'Chess' contains the following not very surprising news. 'The world championship match between Dr. Alekhine and Flohr is dead. The money which was to have financed it has been diverted into the hands of the Teuton. ... More, therefore, may emerge from the AVRO tournament than was until very recently expected. Dr. Alekhine has declared himself willing to play a match for the world's championship against the first prize winner on conditions to be determined later. The AVRO corporation may finance such a match.'" The Kensington News and West London Times of Dec. 9 says, "The result means that the suggested match between Flohr and Alekhine will not take place. Capablanca is also too lowly placed to be considered for the championship. What is going to happen? Will Fine and Keres play a short match to decide who will challenge Alekhine? That seems the correct procedure under the current system. It seems a pity that Alekhine, Fine, Keres and Botvinnik cannot compete in a tournament for the championship." From contemporary accounts, at least, it looks as though the prize money was split and the titled shared, with no formal tiebreak process. |
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Feb-04-25
| | beatgiant: <unferth> I checked the NY Times and it, too, said Fine and Keres shared first and said nothing about any tiebreak. (Dec. 25, 1938, p. 57) "Begun at Amsterdam, it also ended there in an exciting tie for first place between the two youngsters of the tournament -- Reuben Fine of New York, 24, and Paul Keres of Paernau, Estonia, 22. Keres was not defeated by any of his opponents, but Fine made up for this by winning more games than his clever rival." |
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| Feb-05-25 | | unferth: whoops, just found this from the Dec. 4, 1938 London Observer: AFTER AVRO
This tremendous struggle organized by a Dutch broadcasting company has produced some of the most beautiful chess that has ever been played. The joint winners, Reuben Fine of the United States, aged twenty-four, and Paul Keres, of Estonia, aged twenty-two, deserve their surprising victory; the former for his enterprise (he won six games, drew five, and lost three), and the latter for his powers of resistance (three wins, eleven draws, and no losses). Salo Flohr (Czecho-Slovakia) is out of the championship picture, not because of his poor score of nine draws and five losses, but for financial reasons. Keres becomes the challenger, and Alekhine has agreed to play him in 1940 for the world title. Fine is not slighted, since it was agreed that ties in the Avro meeting should be split by the Sonnenborg-Berger scaling: and this system gave Keres (who beat Fine individually) the first prize. |
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Feb-05-25
 | | Troller: Skakbladet issue 1 1939 has this:
<...Keres and Fine shared first and second prizes (1000 and 750 guilders respectively) but the right to challenge Alekhine for the World Championship was won by Keres after Sonnenborg-Berger's system...Keres will not make use of this right at the moment, as he wants to finish his mathematical studies first...> At the end of the piece, it is speculated that Flohr's result <is probably the final blow to his dreams about a World Championship match>. The piece is presumably written by the editor who most likely was not present at the tournament. But the specific mention of S-B seems credible. |
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| Feb-05-25 | | Petrosianic: <unferth>: Excellent research. |
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| Feb-05-25 | | Petrosianic: <unferth>: <Keres becomes the challenger, and Alekhine has agreed to play him in 1940 for the world title.> Is that confirmed? I've heard it before, but Keres never mentions it in his March 1941 article in Chess Review, when he evaluates all the top challengers. Keres doesn't claim any priority for himself at all in that. On the other hand, I don't know exactly when it was written, and the Soviet Annexation of Estonia in August 1940 might have limited what he could say on that subject. I imagine it's probably true, but have never checked it out. |
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| Feb-05-25 | | Petrosianic: Chess Review, March 1940:
<Keres is the winner of the great Semmering Tournament and co-winner of the even more formidable Avro Tournament.> No mention of him having been slated to play Alekhine this year, and reports him as only co-winner of AVRO. That might mean that the London Observer was wrong or it might mean that, being a US magazine, Chess Review sugar-coated it. There's a Fred Reinfeld article called "World Championship Run Around" in Chess Review, October 1940, that talks about a possible Capablanca-Alekhine match, but also makes no mention of any Keres-Alekhine match. |
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| Feb-05-25 | | Petrosianic: Okay, here's a confirmstion of Alekhine-Keres:
<ALEKHINE: "The present situation is this: after the tournament was over, Keres challenged me to a match, adding that he would prefer not to play before the end of 1940. Accepting in principle, I communicated to hlm my financial conditions, which are virtually the same as those of the first match against Dr. Euwe and of the projected match, against Flohr; I also conveyed my decision in future to defend my title in one place only. Practical experience of the last matches, and especially of the AVRO Tournament, has shown me the impossibility of playing my best if there are journeys to be made during the contest. It is now for the Challenger and those who may support him to reply; in any case, there remains the possibility of another match for the title in 1939.> -- Chess Review, January 1939 So, according to this, Keres challenged Alekhine, not because he won AVRO, necessarily, but just because he challenged. Alekhine accepted <in principle>, but nothing was definite, and Alekhine even held out the possibility of playing somebody else before Keres. Alekhine accepted a lot of things in principle that never actually happened. |
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| Feb-05-25 | | sudoplatov: EDO has a good description of the method used for comparing across generations. I am not sure this is best, but it is described. The ratings are highly correlated with Chessmetrics and my own amateur opinions. |
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| Feb-06-25 | | stone free or die: I agree, and I really much prefer the visual styling and presentation of the data. Streamlined, effective, and attractive. |
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| Feb-06-25 | | stone free or die: There was this early mention of the winner of AVRO qualifying as challenger for the WCC, <
TO PLAY CHESS (SCHAKEN)
Eight grandmasters meet each other Chess-playing Netherlands awaits an unprecedented pleasure in the month of November The AVRO has succeeded in placing the strongest players, namely the grandmasters of the world, against each other in a doubles tournament. In addition to Dr. Aljechin and Dr. Euwe, the following will participate in this tournament: Capablanca, Flohr Botvinnik, Reshevsky, Fine and Keres. <<As a special feature, we would like to inform you that the grandmaster who emerges as the winner of this tournament will thereby obtain the right to compete for the world title. This chess event thus rises far above the significance of an ordinary demonstration.>> Of the 14 games that this tournament will consist of, the eighth game will be played in Tivoli in Utrecht on Thursday 17 November, and the first game will take place in Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon 6 November. The playing times are on weekdays from 6:00 to 11:00 pm and on Sunday afternoons from 12:00 to 5:00 pm. The games will be easy to follow by installing special demonstration boards. Thanks to this tournament, chess will once again be in the spotlight in the month of November.> https://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=... [Emphasis added] |
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| Feb-06-25 | | stone free or die: How come <Missy> hasn't tagged each round with the proper <Site>? Remember how important s/he considers having the actual city for the <Site> (no compound Site tags for he/r). I'll start:
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Ha... . |
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| Feb-06-25 | | stone free or die: One more:
https://www.tivolivredenburg.nl/wp-... |
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| Feb-06-25 | | stone free or die: Likely the same building but inside (on a different occasion of course) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe... |
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Feb-10-25
 | | GrahamClayton: Games took place in 10 different Dutch cities - Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Groningen, Zwolle, Haarlem, Utrecht, Arnhem, Breda & Leiden. |
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