| Sep-16-06 | | Calli: A critical game. At this stage, the score was exactly the same as the first match. Could Euwe close like he did two years earlier? Euwe gives the win as 28.e6! Nxe6 29.Ng6+ Kg8 30.Ne7+! Euwe was given opportunities by Alekhine during the middle stretch of games, but said that he could not think with same clarity as before. Some speculated that his heavy schedule had taken its toll. His play collapsed during the last portion of the match. |
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Jan-01-07
 | | Pawn and Two: In Munninghoff's biography "Max Euwe", this game is described as: <a mysterious game, the strangest and tensest one of the entire match. As early as move 17, Alekhine is forced to seek his salvation in a piece sacrifice in exchange for attacking chances. Euwe, who knows the opening has left him with all the trumps, makes a few intermediate moves and accepts the sacrifice, simply because it cannot possibly be good. Unless Alekhine can really perform magic, there is nothing in the position that could justify Black's sacrifice except one thing, which cannot only be read from the configuration of the pieces but more particularly in Alekhine's face: sheer desperation.> A different viewpoint of the game was taken by William Winter. At the time of the match, Winter wrote in "The Manchester Guardian", <the mystery game of the contest, as Alekhine's defiance of the accepted rules of the development actually led to his getting such a position after 17 moves that Euwe had to find the right reply every time to avert disaster.> We now know that it was Alekhine who was trying to avert disaster in this game. Euwe missed at least 2 good winning chances. At move 24, Euwe should have played 24.Nxc5! Qxc5 25.Bd3. Fritz 9 gives the following analysis: if 25...Ne6 26.Be3 Qb4 27.Nf5 Qxb2 28.Bxe4 dxe4 29.Ng3 Qxe5 30.Qc4 or 25...Rh5 26.Rac1 Qb6 27.Bxe4 Rxg5 28.Bxd5 Rh5 29.g3 g5 30.Nf5 Nxf5 31.Qc4. White is winning in both of these lines. At move 28, as Calli points out, White can win with 28.e6! Nxe6 29.Ng6+ Kg8 30.Ne7+ or 28.e6! fxe6 29.Ba6 Kf7 30.Bxc8 Qxc8 31.b4! or 28.e6! Nxb5 29.Qxb5 Kg8 30.e7 Kh7 31.Qe2 Qe5 32.Qxg4. I believe this game, because of the missed wins in such a dominant position, was a significant factor in Euwe's subsequent collapse. |
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| Sep-18-07 | | kevin86: This time,it was Euwe who was forced to save the draw-but only after he had blown an early advantage. This was NOT 1935!! Euwe's failure to win the last two will soon take its toll as the once and soon-to-be champion,Alekhine,will completely take over. |
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Sep-18-07
 | | tamar: Objectively, Euwe should have won this game. As we are seeing in the Mexico Championships though, the prospect of defeat spurs the losing side to delve more deeply than the winning one. Alekhine played very riskily early with Black, and contrary to William Winter's assessment <after 17 moves that Euwe had to find the right reply every time to avert disaster> it was Alekhine who had to find only moves to keep his position going. With 19...Be4 Alekhine plunges into a piece sacrifice, but what were his options? After 19...Bd3 20 Bxd3 Nxd3 21 Qxd3 Bxf2+ 22 Kf1 Bxe1 23 Kxe1 Nxe5 24 Qxd5 Re8 25 Kf1 Kg8 26 Rc1 Kh7 27 Rc5 and White has reasserted his initiative. Seeing all this means each side was expending enormous energy on each individual move, so it is no surprise
Euwe finally missed the critical 28 e6 nine moves later. |
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| Apr-08-08 | | Knight13: Most exciting game of the entire match. So tactically oriented in d4 game! <Unless Alekhine can really perform magic, there is nothing in the position that could justify Black's sacrifice except one thing, which cannot only be read from the configuration of the pieces but more particularly in Alekhine's face: sheer desperation.> Alehine did perform "magic", and drew the game, with or without "sheer desperation". What's Munninghoff's point? |
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| Nov-09-10 | | soothsayer8: What an interesting position around moves 18-19, with that pivotal 5th rank almost completely full with pieces! |
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May-27-21
 | | FSR: This Land Was Made for You and Me. |
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May-27-21
 | | offramp: <Calli: A critical game. At this stage, the score was exactly the same as the first match. Could Euwe close like he did two years earlier? Euwe gives the win as 28.e6! Nxe6 29.Ng6+ Kg8 30.Ne7+! > The calculation is hard because after 30...Kf8, 31.Nxc8, then 31...Qh2+ gives problems. In a human mind it is easy to give up the calculation after seeing ...Qh2+. |
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May-28-21
| | FSR: I meant <This Land Was Made for Euwe and Me>. Jeez. |
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Jul-31-21
 | | keypusher: Played over this game in Coles' fine book, <Epic Battles of the Chessboard>. Just an amazing battle. A few engine notes. Euwe had a crushing position coming out of the opening, as others have pointed out. His first big missed opportunity was 16.Bg5 (development!) in place of the suspect 16.Nd1. 16.Bg5 Qb6 17.Bh4 Nxf2 18.Bxf2 a6 19.Ba4 Bxf2+ 20.Qxf2 Qxf2+ 21.Kxf2 Nd3+ 22.Ke3 Nxe1 23.Rxe1 (about +5) looks like a very easy ending for White. At move 19, SF (like Coles) prefers the greedy (Coles calls it "incisive") 19.hxg4 hxg4 20.Nh4. If 20....Be4, then 21.Rc1! g3 22.Rxc5 Qxc5 23.Be3 Qe7 24.fxg3 Nc2 25.Rf1 Nxe3 26.Qxe3 gets a firm grip on the position. If 20....g3, the engine unhesitatingly goes for 21.Nxf5 gxf2+ 22.Nxf2 Bxf2+ 23.Qxf2 Rh1+ 24.Kxh1 Qxf2 25.Rf1 and Black's queen has no good options -- 25....Qc5 26.Be7+, or 25....Qc2 26.e6! Nd3 27.Be3 threatening Bxd3 followed by Bc5+. SF thought 20....Nc2 was a blunder (though 20....hxg4 is still very bad for Black). Instead of 22.Qf1, SF prefers the hard to see 22.Qd2 (22....Nxb5 23.Na4 Qc7 24.Rac1 b6 25.Nxc5 bxc5 26.f3! +-). Pawn and Two already noted 24.Nxc5! Qxc5 25.Bd3 Ne6 26.Be3; if 26....Bxd3, then 27.Bxc5+ Nxc5 28.Re2 Rxh4 29.Qc1! +-. I thought Black might be able to play 26....d4 27.Bxe4 dxe3, and if 28.Nf5(??) exf2+ 29.Qxf2 Rh1+ he even wins. Unfortunately simply 28.g3 refutes, and even 28.Ng6+ followed by 29.Rxe3 is much better for White. The game continuation is 24.Rxe4? dxe4 25.Qc4?! (25.Qc1 is better) Rc8 26.Rc1 
click for larger view26....b6?? A losing blunder! Coles thinks 26....Qxe5 is unplayable because of 27.Nxc5 Qxg5 28.Ne6+! Nxe6 29.Qxc8+ Ke7 30.Rc7+! Kf6 (30....Nxc7 31.Qxc7+! is even worse) 31.Qxh8 Nxc7 32.Qd8+. Unfortunately after 27.Nxc5 SF comes up with the utterly unreasonable 27....Kg8!!(!). Now if 28.Nd7 Rxc4 29.Nxe5 Ne2+, or 28.Be3 Rxh4 29.Bxd4 Qh5! 30.Kf1 Rd8! 31.Bd7 Rh1+ 32.Ke2 g3+ 33.Kd2 gxf2 34.Bxf2 b6! 35.Rxh1 Qxh1 35.Qxe4 bxc5 and somehow we wind up at 0.00 after 36.Kc2 Qf1 37.Bxc5 Rxd7 38.Qe8+ Kh7 39.Qxd7 Qc4+ 40.Kd2 Qxc5. No one of woman born could find 27....Kg8, I think. After 27.Nxc5 bxc5, <Calli> (and Euwe) pointed out the winning 28.e6. <offramp> has a good point -- it's not so easy to allow ...Qh2+. Coles noted that 28.Ba6? must have been very tempting, since if the rook moves Qxd4 is instantly decisive. But after 28....Qxe5! 29.Bxc8 Qxg5, Black was threatening not just ...Qxh4 but Qxc1+ as well. 32.Rc4 risked defeat -- 32.Ba6 or Bb7 were dead even. Alekhine would have had the better ending after 36....f5!. Instead after 36....Rh6 37.Rc8+ Ke7 38.Rc7+ and Rxa7 would have been dead even. (As you can imagine, they were both in time trouble.) Euwe's 37.Rxe4?! led to a pawn-down ending, but he had no trouble holding it. |
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| Aug-03-21 | | aliejin: When alekhine played this game
he was two points ahead.
and he promoted such a battle!
Another master in his situation
, especially with black pieces,
would have sought a quick simplification
to cancel the game
As Kotov said, the French Russian
put the creative spirit first
to the sports result |
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