The AVRO tournament was a famous chess tournament held in the Netherlands in 1938, sponsored by the Dutch broadcasting company AVRO. The event was a double round-robin tournament between the eight strongest players in the world.

According to the unofficial Chessmetrics ratings, the tournament was (as of March 2005) one of only six tournaments in history that had the top eight players in the world playing, and the only one to have only the top eight players playing."Formulas" Chessmetrics.com. Retrieved on 2026-07-13.

Paul Keres and Reuben Fine tied for first place, with Keres winning on tiebreak by virtue of his 1½-½ score in their individual games.

The tournament was presented as one to provide a challenger to World Champion Alexander Alekhine, though it had no official status. In any event, World War II dashed any hopes of a championship match for years to come. However, when FIDE organised its 1948 match tournament for the world title after Alekhine's death in 1946, it invited the six surviving AVRO participants (Capablanca had also died), except Flohr who was replaced by Vasily Smyslov.

Schedule

The AVRO tournament was played from November 6 to November 27, 1938. The players travelled from one city to another in the following order:AVRO tournament game collection on ChessGames.com.

Round Place Date 1 Amsterdam Nov. 6 2 The Hague Nov. 8 3 Rotterdam Nov. 10 4 Groningen Nov. 12 5 Zwolle Nov. 13 6 Haarlem Nov. 14 7 Amsterdam Nov. 15 8 Utrecht Nov. 17 9 Arnhem Nov. 19 10 Breda Nov. 20 11 Rotterdam Nov. 22 12 The Hague Nov. 24 13 Leiden Nov. 25 14 Amsterdam Nov. 27

Crosstable

No. Name State KeresFine Botv. Euwe Resh. Alekh. Capa. Flohr Total 1 Paul Keres 1½ ½½ ½½ 1½ ½½ 1½ ½½ 8½ 2 Reuben Fine 0½ 1½ 10 10 11 ½½ 1½ 8½ 3 Mikhail Botvinnik ½½ 0½ ½0 1½ 1½ ½1 ½½ 7½ 4 Max Euwe ½½ 01 ½1 0½ 0½ 01 1½ 7 5 Samuel Reshevsky 0½ 01 0½ 1½ ½½ ½½ 1½ 7 6 Alexander Alekhine ½½ 00 0½ 1½ ½½ ½1 ½1 7 7 José Raúl Capablanca 0½ ½½ ½0 10 ½½ ½0 ½1 6 8 Salo Flohr ½½ 0½ ½½ 0½ 0½ ½0 ½0 4½

The longest game was a 68-move win of Fine over Alekhine. The shortest game was a 19-move draw between Flohr and Fine. Of the 56 games played: White won seventeen, Black won seven, and thirty-two were drawn.

The tournament was supposed to select a challenger to Alekhine's crown, but due to the advent of World War II, no match could be held. GM Larry Kaufman wrote in 2023 that Fine "was a clear favorite" had he played against Alekhine in 1939 or 1940, whereas for Keres "it's not so clear whether he would have defeated Alekhine in 1940" (as Keres' peak play was in the 1950s).

Capablanca's health

Capablanca's play was satisfactory in the first half of the event (50%), but collapsed in the second half, when he lost three games. He had only lost 26 tournament games in 29 years. Hooper and Whyld say "he suffered a slight stroke".Hooper D. and Whyld K. 1992. The Oxford companion to chess. 2nd ed, Oxford University Press. His wife Olga recalled that his high blood pressure nearly cost him his life: "A doctor screamed at me, 'How could you let him play?'" (at AVRO 1938).Winter, Edward 1989. Capablanca. McFarland. p300/1. In a 1939 interview Capablanca attributed his performance to "very high blood pressure and related circulatory disorders".Capablanca Interviewed in 1939, Edward Winter, chesshistory.com His doctor wrote that he had dangerously high blood pressure while he was treating him from 1940 until his death in 1942, and believed that it contributed to his death.Capablanca's Death, Edward Winter, chesshistory.com. The Cuban had been suffering from angina pectoris going into the tournament and it was the only tournament during his life in which he lost more games than he won.

See also Botvinnik versus Capablanca, AVRO 1938, A famous game from the 11th round. Nottingham 1936 chess tournament World chess championship

References

Sources АВРО-турнир: Состязание сильнейших гроссмейстеров мира. Голландия, 1938 год / [Авт.-сост. Г. Г. Торадзе]. Москва: Галерия, 2006. 295 с .

External links AVRO 1938 AVRO 1938 game collection on Chessgames.com