Euwe Emasculates van den Bosch

Euwe

     Back in 1929 the Wall Street Crash was the start of the Great Depression, but in The Netherlands the depression started more gradually and occurred between 1933 and 1936. 
      Chess thrived everywhere though. Arnold Denker described how during that time young players were forced to live by their wits and that usually meant hustling games. At one point Denker and Al Horowitz shared a room in a hotel managed by a fellow member of the Manhattan Chess Club who let them stay without paying rent. During the day they hustled games because they could win a quarter and that would by a meal. Arthur Dake survived by living on grapes.

     My father was born in 1907 and during his high school years worked part time for the Baltimore and Ohio railroad banking fires in steam engines. After graduation he worked full time on what was known as the extra gang and was soon made a foreman, later to advance to section foreman.
     By the time the Depression rolled around my father was 26-years old and the railroad industry entered the 1930s in a state of deep pessimism. While most business and government leaders proclaimed that the national economy was in good condition, unemployment had risen from 1.5 million in late 1929 to an estimated 4 million by the spring of 1930. The Depression reached a low point in mid-1932, with unemployment standing at 12 million. 
     In spite of that, my father remained employed and even managed to buy a house for $600 (nearly $12,000 today). I remember him telling me that the banker had told him that they had repossessed the house three times and they did not want to see it again! Even so, the stories he told of the Depression years were, well, depressing. 
     Alekhine, the World Champion from 1927 to 1937, challenged Euwe to a championship match in 1933 because in the early 1930s, Euwe, along with Capablanca and Salo Flohr were considered to be the most likely candidates.  Euwe accepted the challenge for October 1935. 
     Alekhine thought he would easily win, but he didn't. Some have attributed Alekhine's loss to alcoholism and Euwe has been incorrectly labeled as the weakest of the world champions. But, Flohr, who was Euwe's second attributed it to Alekhine's over-confidence and Smyslov, Spassky, Karpov, Kramnik and Kasparov, all of whom analyzed the games of the match, determined that the games were of a high standard and Euwe fully deserved to win. 
     Although I no longer have a copy of Euwe's book From My Games, I must admit that his style didn't appeal to me; the games were to dry and “correct.” 
     At the Zurich 1934 tournament held from July 14th to the 28th, 1934 Euwe had tied with Flohr for second behind Alekhine, but had defeated Alekhine in their individual game. Trailing them were Bogoljubov, Lasker, Nimzovich, Bernstein and Stahlberg and eight lesser lights. 
     Prior to the Zurich event, in June of 1934, Euwe played a six game training match in Amsterdam against Johannes Hendrik Otto, Count van den Bosch (April 12, 1906 - November 15, 1994). Most have never heard of van den Bosch and would probably consider Euwe's 6-0 rout of van den Bosch no great surprise and it was an indication of Euwe's great strength at the time. Chessmetrics puts Euwe's rating at 2721 while van den Bosch's was a “mere” 2572. 

     van den Bosch was a Dutch noble, lawyer, banker and chess master who represented The Netherlands in the Olympiads three times: 1928, 1930 and 1931. 
     Count van den Bosch was the son of Jeanne Françoise Marie Rijnen and Johannes Hendrik Otto van den Bosch (1869-1940), vice-admiral in the Dutch navy from 1925 to 1939. His great grandfather was Johannes van den Bosch, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies from (1830–33), who was made a count in 1839. Johannes studied law at the University of Utrecht and eventually became a director of De Nederlandsche Bank. He married Benudina Maria Royaards in 1937. 
     His best achievements were winning The Hague in 1928 and 1929), finishing tied for second behind Mir Sultan Khan at Cambridge 1932 and second place in Dutch Championship at The Hague/Leiden 1933. 
     He finished first at Amsterdam 1936 which was probably his best result. He was undefeated, scoring +4 -0 =3 and finished ahead of Fritz Saemisch, Rudolf Spielmann, Salo Landau and four Dutch players. He placed 3rd in the 1938 Dutch Championship, 3rd in a quadrangular at Delft in 1940, 4th at Baarn 194, and 9th in the 1954 Dutch Championship. 
     He participated in matches against England in 1939, 1947 and 1949. He played in several matches: 

1927 - defeated Rudolf Loman (4-2) 
1930 - lost to George Salto Fontein (2-3) 
1932 - lost to Salo Flohr (2-6) 
1934 -drew with Rudolf Spielmann (2-2) lost to Max Euwe (0-6) drew with Salo Landau (5-5) 
1961/62 - drew with Henry van Oosterom (3-3) 

     The following game is an example of what Euwe described as a “break-up” combination in Strategy and Tactics in Chess. These are most generally seen when the King's position has been weakened by one or more Pawn advances. 
     In this game, van den Bosch's King is enticed into the open and mated by three successive sacrifices. It's been said that Euwe was the most logical player of all time. He played objective chess, didn't take risks and was always booked up. You could call him a positional player, but in truth he simply played whatever the position called for. Alekhine said, "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."