th Machgielis Max Euwe 5 classical world champ from 1935- 1937 Machgielis "Max" Euwe (Dutch: [ˈøːʋə]; May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess grandmaster, mathematician, author, and chess administrator. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Champion (1935–37). Euwe served as President of FIDE, the World Chess Federation, from 1970 to 1978. Euwe was born in Watergraafsmeer, 1901near Amsterdam. His mother, Elizabeth van der Meer, taught him the moves when he was four. Euwe played his first tournament at age 10, winning every game.[4] Euwe won every Dutch chess championship that he contested from 1921 until 1952, and additionally won the title in 1955 – his 12 titles are still a record. Euwe was a student of mathematics at Amsterdam University, where he graduated with honours in 1923, gaining his doctorate in 1926, after which he taught mathematics in Rotterdam and later in Amsterdam. On December 15, 1935, after 30 games played in 13 different cities around the Netherlands over a period of 80 days, Euwe defeated Alekhine thereigning world champ by 15½–14½, becoming the fifth World Chess Champion. Euwe lost the title to Alekhine in a rematch in 1937, also played in the Netherlands, by the lopsided margin of 15½–9½.The two world title matches against Alekhine represent the heart of Euwe's career. While Euwe was World Champion he changed the way that players competed for the title. From that time on the rights to organise World Championship matches was given to FIDE (Fédération Internationale des échecs - the World Chess Federation). The one exception was the return match between Euwe and Alekhine which went ahead according to the conditions already arranged at the time of the first match. In 1970 Euwe was elected the president of FIDE and held that position until 1978. His role as arbitrator of the Fischer - Spassky World Championship match in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1972 was a very difficult one which he carried out with great tact and skill. He was unfortunate that during his time as president negotiations for the World Championship match between Fischer and Karpov became extremely difficult. Euwe made huge efforts to ensure that the match was played but, unfortunately, despite every effort eventually the match had to be awarded to Karpov by default. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Euwe https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Euwe/ https://www.chessgames.com/player/max_euwe.html .