The tournament has really become interesting as 4 of the FM's moved on 4 out of 6, and if any of them has a good run in, we could have an IM norm from this tournament. Once again, the main room of the Box Hill Chess Club was being used for other purposes, so we were relegated to the back room without the DGT boards. David Hacche was present helping Trevor Stanning with the running of the tournament in the absense of Leonid Sandler, but things are running very smoothly in this event.
Round 6 Pairings and Results:
Solomon-Steadman Draw
Cheng-Teichmann 1-0
Illingworth-Rujevic 1-0
Morris-Gorka 1-0
Smirnov-Levi 1-0
Mike Steadman nearly pulled off a big upset, but couldn't convert from an exchange up against Stephen Solomon. Bobby Cheng built up a very promising attack against Erik Teichmann and finished the game in fine combinative style. This might be the best game of the tournament so far. Rujevic was sloppy against Max Illingworth who is finishing off games clinically in this tournament. Vladimir Smirnov won against a terribly out of form Eddy Levi.
In my game, James Morris took advantage of some slack play by me and converted his advantage very nicely. The game started with a Hedgehog and I successfully got d5 in which looked to equalise. However, I then didn't find the right continuation, allowing James to take the initiative and gain the 2 bishops. Soon after I tried to create some perpetual chances, but gave away material which James took, and he avoided any drawing tricks. All in all, a nice performance from the young IM.
This leaves the standings as follows:
5. Solomon
4. Cheng, Teichmann, Illingworth, Smirnov
3. Morris
2. Gorka, Rujevic, Steadman
0. Levi
Stephen Solomon retains his lead, while the FM's pack in behind him. Any player on 4 points needs 2.5 from their remaining 3 games for an IM norm. Morris moves back to half points, after a very tough start to the tournament, and the rest of us are struggling to hang on.
The move that I really didn't like was 22..Qd7. I think after 22..Qd6 black is fine.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Australasian Masters Round 5
In round 5 of the Australasian Masters I suffered from an affliction that I guess most of us have been affected by. I had to delay my game for 30 minutes as I had to work until 4.30pm, the usual starting time. My opponent, Max Illingworth, had no problems with this which I thank him for. However, when I turned up I couldn't get focussed for the game and by the time I had settled down I was already worse. I tried a few tricks, but Max was completely up to the task of converting his advantage to a full point. It is an interesting problem for amateur chess players who play their games directly after work, and if anyone has any rituals they follow to get them in the mood for playing, then I would love to hear them.
Round 5 pairings and results:
Smirnov-Solomon Draw
Levi-Morris 0-1
Gorka-Illingworth 0-1
Rujevic-Cheng Draw
Teichmann-Steadman 1-0
Standings after 5 rounds:
4.5 Solomon
4 Teichmann
3. Smirnov, Cheng, Illingworth
2 Gorka, Rujevic, Morris
1.5 Steadman
0 Levi
Vladimir Smirnov put Stephen Solomon under some pressure, but the leader held on to the draw. Eddy Levi continued his horrible tournament, building up a promising looking position only for it all to collapse. Eddy has not been well during this event, and in this sort of company you will be found out if you can't give 100%. I didn't see much of the Rujevic-Cheng draw, but it was a messy sort of French where Bobby looked to have some pressure, but that was with his queen on a5. As the game progressed, the queen started looking more out of play and Mirko's position seemed to get better. Erik Teichmann continued putting pressure on Solomon with a fairly easy win against Mike Steadman who also looked as if he hadn't really got focussed in this game.
Australia has some great young talents, and the Australasian Masters is showcasing some of it, with 13 year old FM Bobby Cheng and 16 year old's IM James Morris and FM Max Illingworth.
Young IM James Morris
Young FM Max Illingworth
Round 5 pairings and results:
Smirnov-Solomon Draw
Levi-Morris 0-1
Gorka-Illingworth 0-1
Rujevic-Cheng Draw
Teichmann-Steadman 1-0
Standings after 5 rounds:
4.5 Solomon
4 Teichmann
3. Smirnov, Cheng, Illingworth
2 Gorka, Rujevic, Morris
1.5 Steadman
0 Levi
Vladimir Smirnov put Stephen Solomon under some pressure, but the leader held on to the draw. Eddy Levi continued his horrible tournament, building up a promising looking position only for it all to collapse. Eddy has not been well during this event, and in this sort of company you will be found out if you can't give 100%. I didn't see much of the Rujevic-Cheng draw, but it was a messy sort of French where Bobby looked to have some pressure, but that was with his queen on a5. As the game progressed, the queen started looking more out of play and Mirko's position seemed to get better. Erik Teichmann continued putting pressure on Solomon with a fairly easy win against Mike Steadman who also looked as if he hadn't really got focussed in this game.
Australia has some great young talents, and the Australasian Masters is showcasing some of it, with 13 year old FM Bobby Cheng and 16 year old's IM James Morris and FM Max Illingworth.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Australasian Masters Round 4
Before things started in the fourth round, there was a postponed game between Stephen Solomon and James Morris, which Stephen won. With this win, he moved into equal first place with Erik Teichmann, and the 2 were to meet in the fourth round. We had to move out of the main room at Box Hill Chess Club as there was a coaching session at the club, but we were in the main analysis room which suited fine. The only downside for the event was the lack of DGT transmission which has been expertly provided for by our hosts at Box Hill Chess Club. The fourth round was full of drama, the pairings and results were:
Solomon-Teichmann 1-0
Steadman-Rujevic Draw
Cheng-Gorka 0-1
Illingowrth-Levi 1-0
Morris-Smirnov Draw
I didn't see much of the top game, but when I looked early on, Erik seemed to be doing fine though the position was complicated. The game next to me was an amazing fight between Mike Steadman and Mirko Rujevic. At one point everything seemed to be hanging and both sides were about to promote, and to much amusement they both did promote so we had 4 queens on the board in a game at the masters! However, not long after the exchanges came and a draw was agreed. Max Illingworth and Eddy Levi did it the other way round, exchanging virtually everything except queen's and pawns, with Max a pawn ahead which he was able to convert, though not easily. Vladimir Smirnov seemed to have an edge for a long time against James Morris and the game eventuated in an ending of bishop and pawn versus knight. James was able to draw this, though I didn't see how. It may be a subject for the MCC Endgame group in the future. And then my game was a 5 hour epic, where it looked as if I was getting crushed in the opening with a Bxh7 trick, but it didn't quite work and I came into a queenless middlegame with the 2 bishops and an edge. After some inaccuracies from my opponent I won material, but then had to give most of it back to finally enter a winning rook and pawn endgame.
The standings after 4 rounds:
4. Solomon
3. Teichmann
2.5 Cheng, Smirnov
2. Gorka, Illingworth
1.5 Rujevic, Steadman
1. Morris
0. Levi
Black is allowing white to take on h7, which he did!
I've won a piece, but look at that wrong coloured a-pawn for the bishop. White has some drawing chances here if black isn't careful.
The final ending where I was able to first cut white's king off along the h-file, and then across the fourth rank. Even though it is a rook's pawn, white's king is just too far from the action. Apparently, Ian Rogers, who was present said this ending was theoretically winning for black, and I'll take his word!
Stepehn Solomon and Erik Teichmann before their top of the table clash.
Solomon-Teichmann 1-0
Steadman-Rujevic Draw
Cheng-Gorka 0-1
Illingowrth-Levi 1-0
Morris-Smirnov Draw
I didn't see much of the top game, but when I looked early on, Erik seemed to be doing fine though the position was complicated. The game next to me was an amazing fight between Mike Steadman and Mirko Rujevic. At one point everything seemed to be hanging and both sides were about to promote, and to much amusement they both did promote so we had 4 queens on the board in a game at the masters! However, not long after the exchanges came and a draw was agreed. Max Illingworth and Eddy Levi did it the other way round, exchanging virtually everything except queen's and pawns, with Max a pawn ahead which he was able to convert, though not easily. Vladimir Smirnov seemed to have an edge for a long time against James Morris and the game eventuated in an ending of bishop and pawn versus knight. James was able to draw this, though I didn't see how. It may be a subject for the MCC Endgame group in the future. And then my game was a 5 hour epic, where it looked as if I was getting crushed in the opening with a Bxh7 trick, but it didn't quite work and I came into a queenless middlegame with the 2 bishops and an edge. After some inaccuracies from my opponent I won material, but then had to give most of it back to finally enter a winning rook and pawn endgame.
The standings after 4 rounds:
4. Solomon
3. Teichmann
2.5 Cheng, Smirnov
2. Gorka, Illingworth
1.5 Rujevic, Steadman
1. Morris
0. Levi
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Australasian Masters Round 3
Ok, so I'm actually writing this blog on the Masters a day behind, because the 4th round has finished but I write to get over the game I played which I don't want to analyse in too much depth each evening....I've got to get up at 6.30am! So round 3 of the Masters was a huge personal disappointment for me. I played a game much as I would have liked to and then just made one slack move which threw everything away. I suppose this sort of thing can happen, but it doesn't make it any less painful when it does. Anyway, it was good to see Ian and Cathy Rogers at the tournament and I felt pretty good when Ian praised the way I played the endgame in the first round against Mike Steadman.
Before the round started proper, the postponed game between Solomon and Rujevic was played with a fairly comfortable win for Stephen Solomon. Then, one game started 30 minutes early, between Levi and Teichmann which Erik won after a terrible blunder from Eddy who had built up a pretty impressive position only to give up a rook after hallucinating that his queen was on e3 and could go to h6 with mate, when in fact his queen was on f3.
Round 3 Pairings and Results:
Illingworth-Solomon 0-1
Morris-Cheng Draw
Smirnov-Steadman 1-0
Levi-Teichmann 0-1
Gorka-Rujevic 0-1
Morris-Cheng was an interesting game with James grabbing a pawn early on which allowed Bobby to develop and eventually he won his material back and the game petered out to a draw. I didn't see much of the Smirnov-Steadman game, but apparently Vladimir won a pawn and played a nice temporary sacrifice to simplify the position and then converted. The game between Max Illingworth and Stephen Solomon was the longest of the tournament so far at nearly 100 moves. In the end there was rook knight and pawn against rook bishop and pawn with Solomon having the bishop. After a lot of moves and over 5 hours of play, Max tragically blundered and the game finished a win for Solomon.
In my game I wanted to avoid allowing my opponent direct attacking chances, so perhaps letting him play the King's Indian Defence might not seem a particularly good plan. However it worked and the position became very stodgy with not a lot that either player could do. I exchanged my dark squared bishop for a knight which Mirko thought was bad, but the light squared defence I set up should have been solid enough. However, I blundered with 31.Bd3 losing an exchange and essentially the game. In fact, at that point there was an interesting drawing line that I rejected because I hadn't looked deep enough!
The blunder came in the following position:
Here I played 31.Bd3? and Mirko, who is always very quick to pounce on any tactical chance played 31..Be3+ and after I move my king he played 32..Bd4 winning the rook on c3.
Instead I should have taken the forcing line 31.Nxd6, which I rejected because I lose a piece after 31..Rxc3 32.Rxc3 Rxc3 33.Qxc3 Be3 (a nice zwischenzug) 34.Kh1 Bxf1 and black is a piece up.
However, if only I'd looked deeper then I would have seen that white has a perpetual with 35.Qc8+ Kg7 36.Qd7+ and black must move back to g8 or get mated. I'm sure we also missed stuff earlier on, but that is quite a nice line.
In the post game analysis, Mirko seemed pretty happy with his position and I would happily concede that black had a slight edge, but if white doesn't blunder, then black will have to take some risks to win.
Before the round started proper, the postponed game between Solomon and Rujevic was played with a fairly comfortable win for Stephen Solomon. Then, one game started 30 minutes early, between Levi and Teichmann which Erik won after a terrible blunder from Eddy who had built up a pretty impressive position only to give up a rook after hallucinating that his queen was on e3 and could go to h6 with mate, when in fact his queen was on f3.
Round 3 Pairings and Results:
Illingworth-Solomon 0-1
Morris-Cheng Draw
Smirnov-Steadman 1-0
Levi-Teichmann 0-1
Gorka-Rujevic 0-1
Morris-Cheng was an interesting game with James grabbing a pawn early on which allowed Bobby to develop and eventually he won his material back and the game petered out to a draw. I didn't see much of the Smirnov-Steadman game, but apparently Vladimir won a pawn and played a nice temporary sacrifice to simplify the position and then converted. The game between Max Illingworth and Stephen Solomon was the longest of the tournament so far at nearly 100 moves. In the end there was rook knight and pawn against rook bishop and pawn with Solomon having the bishop. After a lot of moves and over 5 hours of play, Max tragically blundered and the game finished a win for Solomon.
In my game I wanted to avoid allowing my opponent direct attacking chances, so perhaps letting him play the King's Indian Defence might not seem a particularly good plan. However it worked and the position became very stodgy with not a lot that either player could do. I exchanged my dark squared bishop for a knight which Mirko thought was bad, but the light squared defence I set up should have been solid enough. However, I blundered with 31.Bd3 losing an exchange and essentially the game. In fact, at that point there was an interesting drawing line that I rejected because I hadn't looked deep enough!
The blunder came in the following position:
Instead I should have taken the forcing line 31.Nxd6, which I rejected because I lose a piece after 31..Rxc3 32.Rxc3 Rxc3 33.Qxc3 Be3 (a nice zwischenzug) 34.Kh1 Bxf1 and black is a piece up.
In the post game analysis, Mirko seemed pretty happy with his position and I would happily concede that black had a slight edge, but if white doesn't blunder, then black will have to take some risks to win.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Australasian Masters Round 2
The second round of the Australasian Masters went ahead without top seed Stephen Solomon who arrived in Melbourne after the games finished and will have to play 2 games a day on Monday and Tuesday to catch up. With no easy games, this will be tough, even for him. The second round started at 4.30pm at Box Hill Chess Club and at least 3 players are under the weather. Erik Teichmann had a nasty cough, Eddy Levi is not feeling great and I've had a nasty gastro which still hasn't cleared up.
The games and results today were:
Solomon-Rujevic (postponed until Monday)
Teichmann-Gorka 1-0
Steadman-Levi 1-0
Cheng-Smirnov 1-0
Illingworth-Morris 1-0
Leaving my game until last, the round was a great day for the white pieces. Bobby Cheng won a pawn against Vladimir Smirnov and allowed no counterplay. A very efficient win for the 13 year old. Eddy Levi used the Budapest against Mike Steadman but white managed to get through the complications with the 2 bishops and some hopes for an advantage. As the board opened, Mike got his queen and a bishop active and won a pawn. In the end, black was nicely cornered in a mating net. The game between Illingworth and Morris seemed strange. James seemed to get a great position in the early middle game but somehow allowed Max to unwind and then Max won an exchange and never looked back from then.
So on to my game. First, I was expecting Erik to play 1.b4 and he didn't disappoint. I chose a fairly safe line to play against him and it worked well as I got into a very playable middlegame. In fact, I'd be happy to play 1.b4 e5 2.Bb2 d6 again, and even Erik, an expert on Sokolsky's opening said it was quite a good choice. I then threw ..g5 down the board too early, before my opponent had committed his king, and Erik mixed it across the whole board. However, I was still in the game as Erik had left his king in the centre and he didn't look that comfortable in the position either. Anyway, I needed to keep control of the d5 square or else his bishop on b2 would come to life, but unfortunately I didn't do this. The game finished with a queen sacrifice which forces mate.
In the position below, I played ..g5 and got into trouble. White has not committed his king so my move didn't threaten his king so much as weakening my own.
Black has just taken a knight on c3. I was prepared for a simple recapture, and also for axb6, but Erik Teichmann blew me off the board with the line opening d5!! and I now have dire threats against my king along the long diagonal. I took on d5 with my b6 knight and Erik cooly played Qxc3 winning.
It was a pleasant analysis after the game with Eirk Teichmann who cheered me up by reminding me that I am already on more points than the player who finished last in the tournament last year! Thanks Erik, good luck in the rest of the tournament and hope you are feeling better soon.
The games and results today were:
Solomon-Rujevic (postponed until Monday)
Teichmann-Gorka 1-0
Steadman-Levi 1-0
Cheng-Smirnov 1-0
Illingworth-Morris 1-0
Leaving my game until last, the round was a great day for the white pieces. Bobby Cheng won a pawn against Vladimir Smirnov and allowed no counterplay. A very efficient win for the 13 year old. Eddy Levi used the Budapest against Mike Steadman but white managed to get through the complications with the 2 bishops and some hopes for an advantage. As the board opened, Mike got his queen and a bishop active and won a pawn. In the end, black was nicely cornered in a mating net. The game between Illingworth and Morris seemed strange. James seemed to get a great position in the early middle game but somehow allowed Max to unwind and then Max won an exchange and never looked back from then.
So on to my game. First, I was expecting Erik to play 1.b4 and he didn't disappoint. I chose a fairly safe line to play against him and it worked well as I got into a very playable middlegame. In fact, I'd be happy to play 1.b4 e5 2.Bb2 d6 again, and even Erik, an expert on Sokolsky's opening said it was quite a good choice. I then threw ..g5 down the board too early, before my opponent had committed his king, and Erik mixed it across the whole board. However, I was still in the game as Erik had left his king in the centre and he didn't look that comfortable in the position either. Anyway, I needed to keep control of the d5 square or else his bishop on b2 would come to life, but unfortunately I didn't do this. The game finished with a queen sacrifice which forces mate.
In the position below, I played ..g5 and got into trouble. White has not committed his king so my move didn't threaten his king so much as weakening my own.
It was a pleasant analysis after the game with Eirk Teichmann who cheered me up by reminding me that I am already on more points than the player who finished last in the tournament last year! Thanks Erik, good luck in the rest of the tournament and hope you are feeling better soon.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Australasian Masters Round 1
The tournament got under way yesterday at Box Hill Chess Club. It is a strong field with an average rating of just over 2300 and 9 out of the 10 players have titles. I am the only one without a title, but I have been invited to play as I represent a foreign country (England) and I make up the requisite number of overseas players needed for the tournament to qualify for norms. The IM norm is set at about 6.5 which will be tough to reach in this field.
The Players:
1. FM Max Illingworth 2304
2. IM James Morris 2240
3. FM Vladimir Smirnov 2379 (Russia)
4. FM Eddy Levi 2228
5. Carl Gorka 2179 (me!) (England)
6. IM Mirko Rujevic 2296
7. FM Erik Teichmann 2388 (England)
8. FM Mike Steadman 2285 (New Zealand)
9. FM Bobby Cheng 2316
10. IM Stephen Solomon 2397
This is the playing order for the tournament and I was lucky enough to get 5, giving me 5 whites. Stephen Solomon won't be here until tomorrow so his first 2 games have been rescheduled for Monday and Tuesday. By the end of Tuesday the tournament will be back on schedule.
The time limit is not the usual 90 minutes plus 30 seconds increment per move. Instead, the organisers have gone with the longer time limit of 40 moves in 90 minutes, followed by 30 minutes to complete the game, with a 30 second increment from move one. It is a very generous time control which will probably stretch the games out to 5 hours.
The first round was swapped with round 3 to avoid Max Illingworth having to play 2 games in a day, so the first round pairings and results were actually:
Morris-Solomon (postponed until Tuesday)
Smirnov-Illingworth 1-0
Levi-Cheng 0-1
Gorka-Steadman 1-0
Rujevic-Teichmann 0-1
I didn't see too much of the other games, but Smirnov seemed to get a good position early against Illingworth and converted. Levi-Cheng was a long tough fight that lasted close to 5 hours. I have spoken to people who think Eddy could have held the position to a draw, but I didn't see it and the win goes to Bobby. Teichmann won an exchange against Rujevic after outplaying him in the opening. He was able to convert easily enough though he himself admits that he missed a number of quicker wins.
And then there was my game against the New Zealander, Mike Steadman. It was a strange game, I played 1.d4 but it ended up a French Defence. Mike got in a bit of a tangle early on, but I then started messing around with my queen and allowed him to take the advantage with a timely c5 advance. The position became a little messy with both of us unable to find decent plans until the position clarified into a double bishop ending where I was a pawn ahead.
It was interesting after the game that Mike Steadman, as black was trying to win this even though he was a pawn down. His reasoning was that if he could win the c5 pawn, then the ending would give him excellent chances with his connected pawn mass. Alas, he blundered his f7 pawn not long after this position and that left me with a fairly easy win as I had passed pawns on both sides of the board. It was an interesting game.
One of the interesting points of the game was after Black had played 28..Rxh2. White has a fantastic move that he never considered, because he forgot that he could do it!!! 29.0-0!
As white I had forgotten I could castle in this position!!
The Players:
1. FM Max Illingworth 2304
2. IM James Morris 2240
3. FM Vladimir Smirnov 2379 (Russia)
4. FM Eddy Levi 2228
5. Carl Gorka 2179 (me!) (England)
6. IM Mirko Rujevic 2296
7. FM Erik Teichmann 2388 (England)
8. FM Mike Steadman 2285 (New Zealand)
9. FM Bobby Cheng 2316
10. IM Stephen Solomon 2397
This is the playing order for the tournament and I was lucky enough to get 5, giving me 5 whites. Stephen Solomon won't be here until tomorrow so his first 2 games have been rescheduled for Monday and Tuesday. By the end of Tuesday the tournament will be back on schedule.
The time limit is not the usual 90 minutes plus 30 seconds increment per move. Instead, the organisers have gone with the longer time limit of 40 moves in 90 minutes, followed by 30 minutes to complete the game, with a 30 second increment from move one. It is a very generous time control which will probably stretch the games out to 5 hours.
The first round was swapped with round 3 to avoid Max Illingworth having to play 2 games in a day, so the first round pairings and results were actually:
Morris-Solomon (postponed until Tuesday)
Smirnov-Illingworth 1-0
Levi-Cheng 0-1
Gorka-Steadman 1-0
Rujevic-Teichmann 0-1
I didn't see too much of the other games, but Smirnov seemed to get a good position early against Illingworth and converted. Levi-Cheng was a long tough fight that lasted close to 5 hours. I have spoken to people who think Eddy could have held the position to a draw, but I didn't see it and the win goes to Bobby. Teichmann won an exchange against Rujevic after outplaying him in the opening. He was able to convert easily enough though he himself admits that he missed a number of quicker wins.
And then there was my game against the New Zealander, Mike Steadman. It was a strange game, I played 1.d4 but it ended up a French Defence. Mike got in a bit of a tangle early on, but I then started messing around with my queen and allowed him to take the advantage with a timely c5 advance. The position became a little messy with both of us unable to find decent plans until the position clarified into a double bishop ending where I was a pawn ahead.
One of the interesting points of the game was after Black had played 28..Rxh2. White has a fantastic move that he never considered, because he forgot that he could do it!!! 29.0-0!
Australasian Masters and other things
Today was the start of a very strong Round Robin tournament that I am competing in, the Australasian Masters. I will be writing more about this in the days to come as it takes place over 9 consecutive days. I have played in a number of these tournaments over the years and they constitute the main way for Victorian players to gain IM norms on home ground. I even organised one of these events back in 2006 and I can say that it is no easy matter. Anyway, as I've already said I'll write plenty about the Masters this week.
Trevor Stanning (left) of Box Hill Chess Club, the host of the Australasian Masters, and Leonid Sandler, the organiser of the event.
I wrote in an earlier post that I had bought a biography and some people tried to guess who it was. The guesses included Keres, Larsen and Karpov, but it was in fact Alexander Munninghoff's biography of Max Euwe, the Dutch World Champion.
It is a really heartfelt account of an amateur who made it to the top of the World. Euwe seems much more 'human' than most of the World Champions I've read about. Max Euwe was a guy who could blunder, and did regularly; was a guy who played regularly in his home town even though he was way above everyone else; was a guy who didn't put chess above everything else, and when he tried to this, in the lead up the 1948 match tournament for the World Championship, he played some of the worst chess of his life. Euwe was a great chess player and administrator, with a life outside of chess. He was a family man, and loved mathematics and his teaching jobs as much as chess.
The book is beautifully written, bringing Euwe's life into perspective according to the times when he lived. His faults aren't apologised for, but it is obvious the author has no time for people who underestimate Euwe's role in the history of chess, and his right to be claimed an all time great of the game. After reading this biography I would have to agree. I can remember one of the first games I ever saw by Euwe was his amazing win against Geller from the 1953 Candidates tournament. I was stunned that anyone could play like that, and dreamed of playing a move like 22..Rh8 in my games, but alas it has never happened. Anyway, see for yourself...
I wrote in an earlier post that I had bought a biography and some people tried to guess who it was. The guesses included Keres, Larsen and Karpov, but it was in fact Alexander Munninghoff's biography of Max Euwe, the Dutch World Champion.
The book is beautifully written, bringing Euwe's life into perspective according to the times when he lived. His faults aren't apologised for, but it is obvious the author has no time for people who underestimate Euwe's role in the history of chess, and his right to be claimed an all time great of the game. After reading this biography I would have to agree. I can remember one of the first games I ever saw by Euwe was his amazing win against Geller from the 1953 Candidates tournament. I was stunned that anyone could play like that, and dreamed of playing a move like 22..Rh8 in my games, but alas it has never happened. Anyway, see for yourself...
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