CHESS

Rays serene

Raymond Keene

Has there ever been a tournament like AVRO 1938? Four world champions, past, present and future, were in the lists and the remaining four participants were, to a man, legitimate aspirants to the title. In- deed, for a further nineteen years the chess crown was held exclusively by grandmas- ters who had played in AVRO.

It was the custom of the day to play matches on the peripatetic principle, each game in a different town. Alekhine's world championship matches, for example, in 1929, 1934, 1935 and 1937, had trundled like a travelling circus around Germany and Holland.

AVRO (named after the sponsors, a Dutch radio station) conformed to this system, the first round being played in the Grand Hotel Krasnopolsky, Amsterdam, with subsequent rounds in Breda, Utrecht, Haarlem and so on. After AVRO the method went out of fashion. Inevitably, the older players (Alekhine, Capablanca) were handicapped to an extent and spoiled some positions near the end of the first session. It was obvious that trekking all over Holland unduly favoured the stamina of the younger grandmasters, Keres, Fine and Botvinnik. Botvinnik himself wrote: AVRO Tournament 1938

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total 1 Fine X 01/2 11/2 11 10 10 1/21/2 11/2 81/2 2 Keres 11/2 X 1/21/2

111/1

11/2 11/2 1/21/2 81/2 3 Botvinnik

01/2 1/21/2

X 11/2 440 11/2 1/21 1/21/2 71/2 4 Alekhine 00 1/21/2 01/2 X 11/2 1/21/2

1/21 1/21

7 5 Euwe 01 1/21/2 1/21

01/2

X

01/2

01

11/2

7 6 Reshevsky 01 01/2 01/2 1/21/2 11/2 X

111/2

11/2 7 7 Capablanca 1/21/2 01/2 440 1/20 10 1/21/2 X 1/21 6 8 Flohr 01/2 1/21/2 1/21/2 1/20 01/2 01/2 1/20 X 41/2

`One cannot help recalling the intolerable tournament programme. On playing days the participants often had to do without dinner. The time was spent on trains, the event being held in many Dutch towns. It is little wonder that the oldest participant, Capablanca, finished in last but one place.' In spite of the difficult conditions a disproportionate number of the AVRO games have been recognised as undisputed classics. Here are three famous gems from a multitude played in this remarkable clash of chessboard arms.

Fine-Capablanca.

A pawn down and threatened by the murderous fxe5, Capa strikes back from the brink of the precipice: 26 . . . Bxg2!! 27 Rxg2 Rag8 28 Ree2 exf4 29 Nb7 Qd5 30 Rxg4 Rxg4+ 31 Rg2 Rxg2+ 32 Qxg2 13 33 Qh3 Qg5+ 34 Qg3 Qcl+ 35 Kf2 Qe3+ 36 Kfl Qe2+ 37 Kgl Qdl+ 38 K12 Qxc2+ 39 Kxf3 Qc6+ 40 Keg Qxb7 41 b3 Qe4+ 42 Kd2 Qe5 43 Qh3 Qg5+ 44 Kd3 Draw agreed.

Alekhine-Euwe.

71$ Alekhine smashed Euwe's king's side with h6! gxh6 25 Be5 Kg7 26 a4 bxa4 27 c4 cxd5 Nexd5 29 KM Rc8 30 Rgl+ Kh7 31Qbl+ ‘'175 Rg8 32 e4 Rxgl+ 33 1Cxg1 Qb5 34 exd5 Kg2 Qg6+ 35 Kfl Qbl+ 37 Kg2 Qg6+ " NxdS 39 BxdS exd5 40 Qxa4 h5 41 b4

Black

resigns. If 24 . . . Rxh6 25 a4! bxa4 26 Rb8 wins. Botvinnik-Capablanca.

Botvinnik now unleashed celebrated combinations of Qxa3 31 Nh5+gxh5 32 Qg5+ 34 e7 Qcl+ 35 Kf2 Qc2+ 35 Qe4+ 38 KxhS Qe2+ 39 1014 one of the+mt IC?„3 Qd3 7 "4 am8Qe411 ti:m3e:xf6. +300312e13007+

41 ICh5 Black resigns.