They seem quite complete--lots of articles and interviews of the contestants and other authorities. Analysis from many sources.

His account stresses that the matches were of a high caliber. While praising Alekhine to the sky, Purdy also assesses Euwe to be a worthy Champion.

I'm only a middling player. I find Purdy's analysis inspiring, though it is as likely as not that he's just glib and I'm not strong enough to see shortcomings.

It'll be a fascinating book.

I believe Alekhine drank too much <for one game>, when a game was rescheduled. But, like Tal, Alekhine could play chess roughly as well when he had been drinking as when he was totally sober.

<Euwe's huge achievement has been underestimated.>

Alekhine had won San Remo (1930) by a distance, then Bled (1931) by a large margin. Then he had beaten Bogolubov, who was a very strong player and previous world number one, in Alekhine - Bogoljubov World Championship Rematch (1934).

I won't say Euwe was brave because there was no danger of physical injury, but there <was> a chance of a very embarrassing 6 or 7-nil shutout in front of his home crowd.

But he assessed his chances, thought they were reasonable and played the great Alekhine, and won!

No, I think he's referring to the 85 Alekhine-Euwe <games>, not a specific year.

Although I actually see 86 games between them in the database.>

Alekhine met Euwe 86 times.

Two great players 100 years previously did the same. 86 games.

McDonnell- La Bourdonnais

Yeah, but I wouldn't put too much stock in it, mainly because they're the only KNOWN meetings, not necessarily all the meetings.

For example, this game is in the database, and actually counted against their lifetime record, even though it's only an "Offhand" game.

Alekhine vs Euwe, 1921

It's odd that you should mention that, because there <is> a book about the earlier series of matches.

The snappily titled "<De La Bourdonnais Versus McDonnell, 1834: The Eighty-Five Games of Their Six Chess Matches, with Excerpts from Additional Games Against Other Opponents>" by Cary Utterberg has won an award as "The Best-Looking Book Containing The Worst Set Of Games In History".

Games 8-14 were 4-1 to Euwe.

"Does the general public, do even our friends the critics, realize that <Euwe <virtually never made an unsound combination?>> He may, of course, occasionally fail to take account of an opponent's combination, but when he has the <initiative in a tactical operation his calculation is impeccable.>"