MARK RUBERY CHESS

Wolfgang Heidenfeld (1911-1981) was one of South Africa’s greatest players as well as being author to numerous books- ‘Lacking the Master touch’ being particularly well received. One of Heidenfeld’s greatest triumphs was when he defeated the former Dutch world champion, Max Euwe at a tournament held at the Johannesburg Library. Although at age 54 Euwes’s best years were behind him, this victory over the great man remains one of the high points of South African chess.

Heidenfeld,Wolfgang - Euwe,Max [C53]

Johannesburg (6), 1955

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Bb6 5.d4 Qe7 6.0–0 d6 7.h3 Nf6 8.Re1 0–0 9.a4 a6 10.Na3 Kh8 11.Nc2 Ng8 12.b4 f6 13.Ne3 Ba7 14.Ba3 Qe8 15.Qd3 Nce7 16.b5 axb5 17.axb5 Qh5 18.Nf1 Qe8? 19.Re2 (19 Bxd6! cxd6 20 b6 wins more in a canter)… Ng6? (Black had to play 19…Bb6 to avoid the impending pin on the a-file) 20.Bc1 Bd7 21.Rea2 Qb8 22.b6 cxb6 23.Bb5 Bxb5 24.Qxb5 N8e7 25.Ne3 Nc8 26.Nd5 (White’s position is so completely dominating that it might have been included, most ironically, as an instructive example in one of Euwe’s finest books-‘Chess Master v Chess Amateur’)… Nge7 27.Nxe7 Nxe7 28.dxe5 Nc6 (28…dxe5 29 Ba3 Re8 30 Bxe7 Rxe7 and an eventual tripling on the a-file will pick up the hapless bishop) 29.exd6 Na5 30.Ba3 Rd8 31.e5 Qc8 32.Bb4 Nc6 33.Qd5 fxe5 34.Nxe5 Nxe5 35.Qxe5 Qb8 36.Qe7 b5 1–0

The following anecdote was related to me by Tim Kett (formerly of Johannesburg) while he was playing in a number of tournaments across Europe… ‘I arrived in Teplice from Maastricht after a train ride through Germany where I sat next to a number of different people and had the usual random conversations - but I didn’t expect this one...

One of the most frequent comments we hear every term as we teach chess in new school classes is “my dad / uncle / Granddad etc was really good at chess... he was a (world) champion”. “Oh yeah” I wearily reply, “that’s very interesting Johnny / Sally / whoever / now let’s learn about pawns”

So when, about halfway between Frankfurt and Nuremburg, this woman said the same thing I went into more-or-less the same routine “Oh right, what was his name ?” to which she hesitantly replied “well it was a funny Dutch name .... Machgielis but everyone just called him Max ... and then the same surname as me - Euwe. He taught us the moves but I was never very interested’