AVRO 1938, Round 12: Euwe puts a stop to Botvinnik's momentum

by Klaus Besenthal
6/14/2020 – After his brilliant win over Capablanca, Mikhail Botvinnik certainly hoped to win the AVRO tournament in the Netherlands, but just one round later the 27-year-old turned in an inexplicably weak performance against Max Euwe (the other ex-world champion in the tournament, left in the picture) and lost a short game. With all the other games of round twelve drawn, Paul Keres remains at the top of the standings table a half point ahead of Reuben Fine, while Botvinnik, with two rounds left to play, is a full point behind the leader.

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AVRO 1938 - Round 12

In his black game against Doctor Euwe, Botvinnik made a serious mistake during the opening phase, after which he lost the game miserably:

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Qb3 c6 6.Bf4 dxc4 7.Qxc4 Be6 8.Qd3 Nd5 9.Bd2 Nb4 10.Qb1 c5 11.dxc5 N8a6 12.e4 Nxc5 13.Bb5+ Bd7 14.0-0 0-0 15.Be3 Bxb5 16.Nxb5
So far, both players have handled the game properly, even though White's opening advantage is no longer noticeable. But with the next move Botvinnik makes an uncharaceristic mistake. 16...Qd3? With 16...Qb6! Black would have got a good position. 17.Nc7 After this simple response, Black inevitably loses material. Nxe4 18.Nxa8 Rxa8 19.Rd1 Qxb1 20.Raxb1 e6 21.Rd7 b6 22.Rc1 Bf8 23.Ne5 Nd5 24.Nxf7
A hopeless position for Black. 24...Be7 25.Ne5 Bf6 26.Nd3 Nxe3 27.fxe3 Bg5 28.Rcc7 Bxe3+ 29.Kf1 Nf6 30.Rxa7 Rc8 31.Rg7+ Kh8 32.Rgc7 Rd8 33.Ne5 Re8 34.Re7 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Euwe,M-Botvinnik,M-1–01938AVRO12

Mikhail Botvinnik

Immediately after his masterpiece against Capablanca Mikhail Botvinnik suffered a severe setback against Max Euwe

Reuben Fine's performance in the second half of the tournament has been considerably worse than his performance in the first half. After his defeat against Max Euwe, the American preferred to stabilize his play against Salo Flohr with a quick draw:

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 dxc4 5.Qa4+ Bd7 6.Qxc4 Bc6 7.Nf3 Bd5 8.Qc2 Nc6 9.Qd1 Bb4+ 10.Nc3 0-0 11.0-0 Bxf3 12.Bxf3 Qxd4 13.Bxc6 Qxd1 14.Rxd1 bxc6 15.Na4 Rfd8 16.Bg5 Rxd1+ 17.Rxd1 Nd5 18.a3 h6 19.Bd2 ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Flohr,S-Fine,R-½–½1938E02AVRO12

Reuben Fine

Reuben Fine could still win the tournament despite his current run of bad form

Paul Keres defended his lead in the standings with a draw against world champion Alekhine, but this game could have ended differently — first Alekhine, and later Keres, could have obtained the win. So the draw was unsatisfactory, albeit not unfair:

 
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1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Nf3 Be7 8.c5 0-0 9.Bb5 Ne4 10.Bxe7 Qxe7 11.Qc2 Ng5 12.Nxg5 Qxg5 13.Bxc6 bxc6 14.0-0 e5 15.dxe5 Qxe5 16.Rfe1 Qf6
A fixed structure has been created and it will be difficult to change it. White wants to move his knight to the cental d4-square in order to exert a slight pressure, although it will not be of much significance. 17.Rad1 Rb8 18.Qd2 Bg4 19.f3 Be6 20.b3 Qe7 21.Qe3 Rfe8 22.Ne2 h6 23.Qc3 Qg5 24.Nd4 Bh3 25.g3 Qf6 26.Re3 Bd7 27.Rde1 Rxe3 28.Rxe3 h5 29.Ne2 Qf5
After everything has been very controlled so far, the world champion places a small pinprick: his queen threatens to penetrate to b1. 30.Qd3 Black gave up control of e7, but 30.Re7 followed by Re8 brings no return. 30...Qf6 31.Qd4 Qf5 32.Kf2 Qb1
Finally comes this move. As it threatens Bh3 and Qf1+, White cannot simply defend the a-pawn. 33.Qf4 Another logical move was 33.Re7 Now if Bh3 , there follows 34.Qe5 and now Qf1+ 35.Ke3 Rf8 36.Re8 with some advantage for White. 33...Rf8 34.Re5?! This looks good, but is ineffective. After the better 34.Nd4 Qxa2+ 35.Re2 White would have lost a pawn, but he would have held his queenside and the heavy pieces would be on good squares. 34...Bh3 Here Black could simply play 34...Qxa2! and after 35.Rxh5 f6! the attack of White's heavy pieces would not have suceeded, while his queenside would have been heavily damaged. 35.g4?! Tougher here was the ugly 35.Nc1! 35...hxg4 36.fxg4
36...d4?! Alekhine missed 36...Qf1+! 37.Ke3 Qe1 and the white king is unstable. In addition, White has to worry about the various loose pawns. 37.Kg3! Now the white king stands much safer than in the previous variation. d3? and this is very bad. 37...Qd3+! would have kept the game balanced. 38.Nd4 Qf1 39.Qxf1 Bxf1 40.Nxc6 f6 41.Rd5 Be2
42.Kf2 After 42.Nxa7! Ra8 43.Nb5 Rxa2 44.c6 White is clearly better. 42...Kf7 43.Rd7+ Ke6 44.Rd6+ Kf7 45.Nxa7 Bxg4 46.Rxd3 Capturing that pawn was not a special priority. With 46.Nb5! White would have kept his advantage. 46...Ra8 47.Rd4 Even now 47.Nb5! was better: Rxa2+ 48.Kg3 and it is not easy for Black to stop the connected passed pawns. 47...Rxa7 48.Rxg4 Rxa2+ 49.Ke3 Rxh2 50.b4 White still has an advantage, but converting from this position is not simple. g5 Now the white rook stops the black pawns, but the black king can move without risking the loss of a pawn. 51.c6 Ke7
52.b5 The path to victory was hard to find: 52.Rd4! Here, White has all the trumps: the black king is cut off from the white pawns, while his white counterpart is active. The white pawns have advanced further than Blakc's connected passers, while g5-g4 is not possible immediately. Rh3+ 53.Kd2 Rh2+ 54.Kc3 Rh3+ 55.Kc2 Rh2+ 56.Kb3 Rh3+ 57.Ka4 52...Rb2 53.Rc4 Kd8 54.Rc5 g4 Alekhine managed to turn the game, which was lost by a huge margin, into a draw. 55.Kf4 Rb4+ 56.Kg3 Kc7 57.Kh4 Kc8 58.Rh5 Kc7 59.Rh7+ Kc8 60.Rb7 Rc4 61.Kg3 f5 62.Kh4 Rc5 ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Keres,P-Alekhine,A-½–½1938AVRO12

Paul Keres

Paul Keres is leading the event with two rounds to go

Capablanca and Reshevsky also drew, but this game was no longer relevant to the fight for tournament victory:

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bf4 Bg7 5.e3 0-0 6.Rc1 c5 7.dxc5 Qa5 8.cxd5 Rd8 9.Qa4 Qxa4 10.Nxa4 Nxd5 11.Bb5 Nxf4 12.exf4 Be6 13.b3 Bd5 14.Nf3 Bxf3 15.gxf3 Nc6 16.Bxc6 bxc6 17.Ke2 Bh6 18.Rc4 e5 19.fxe5 Rd2+ 20.Kf1 Rxa2 21.Kg2 Be3 22.Rf1 Rb8 23.Kg3 Bd2 24.Nc3 Bxc3 25.Rxc3 Rb2 26.Rd1 R2xb3 27.Rxb3 Rxb3 28.Rd6 Rc3 29.Rxc6 a5 30.Kf4 Kf8 31.Rc7 a4 32.c6 a3 33.Kg3 a2 34.Ra7 Rxc6 35.Rxa2 Kg7 36.Ra7 Re6 37.f4 Rb6 38.h3 Rc6 39.f5 gxf5 40.Kf4 Kg6 41.Rd7 Rc4+ 42.Kg3 h5 ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Capablanca,J-Reshevsky,S-½–½1938D83AVRO12

Results of round 12

P. Keres ½:½ A. Alekhine
S. Flohr ½:½ R. Fine
M. Euwe 1:0 M. Botvinnik
J.R. Capablanca ½:½ S. Reshevsky

Standings after round 12

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Klaus Besenthal is computer scientist, has followed and still follows the chess scene avidly since 1972 and since then has also regularly played in tournaments.

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