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Botvinnik — Euwe ​

AVRO TournamentAmsterdam, 1938

  • Mikhail Botvinnik (1911–1995)The sixth World Champion (1948–1957, 1958–1960, 1961–1963) and six-time Soviet champion. The patriarch of the Soviet chess school, he taught Karpov, Kasparov, and Kramnik.
  • Max Euwe (1901–1981)The fifth World Champion (1935–1937) and a record twelve-time Dutch champion. He won the title in a match against Alekhine and served as President of FIDE from 1970 to 1978.

The position should be counted as typical, and to some extent debatable. That makes it interesting to follow how leading players treated it.

Two things here matter:

  1. neither side has an advantage in development;
  2. with the trade d4xc5 White "threatens" to isolate the d5 pawn. If Black stops this "threat" with 9...b6, hanging pawns can appear (after 10. dxc4 bxc4).

So Black has to choose between an isolated pawn and hanging pawns. This choice does not settle the game in advance: play is roughly equal either way. Black could calmly have carried on developing with 9...♗e6. Euwe, however, takes the second path and goes for hanging pawns:

  1. 9.
  2. 10.
  3. 11.
  4. A good move, typical of positions like this
  5. 12.
  6. 13.
  7. Defending the central pawns costs Black no real trouble, because Black is well developed. It matters that White has no knight on the queenside, the piece that usually bothers hanging pawns
  8. 14.
  9. 15.
  10. 16.
  11. Apparently to bring the bishop to the a8-h1 diagonal and press on the d5 pawn, but White never manages to carry this plan out. White would like a knight on d3 and a bishop on a3, but how do you get them there?
  12. Black is doing fine
  13. 16.
  14. 17.
  15. 18.
  17. 18.
  18. 19.
  19. 20.
  20. 21.
  21. 22.
  22. 23.
  23. The game was drawn on move 40