AVRO 1938 chess tournament

The AVRO tournament was a famous

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

The AVRO tournament was played from November 6 to November 27, 1938. The players travelled from one city to another in the following order:[1]

No.	Name	State	Keres		Fine		Botv.		Euwe		Resh.		Alekh.		Capa.		Flohr		Total
1	Paul Keres	Estonia			1	½	½	½	½	½	1	½	½	½	1	½	½	½	8½
2	Reuben Fine	United States	0	½			1	½	1	0	1	0	1	1	½	½	1	½	8½
3	Mikhail Botvinnik	Soviet Union	½	½	0	½			½	0	1	½	1	½	½	1	½	½	7½
4	Max Euwe	Netherlands	½	½	0	1	½	1			0	½	0	½	0	1	1	½	7
5	Samuel Reshevsky	United States	0	½	0	1	0	½	1	½			½	½	½	½	1	½	7
6	Alexander Alekhine	France	½	½	0	0	0	½	1	½	½	½			½	1	½	1	7
7	José Raúl Capablanca	Cuba	0	½	½	½	½	0	1	0	½	½	½	0			½	1	6
8	Salo Flohr	Czechoslovakia	½	½	0	½	½	½	0	½	0	½	½	0	½	0			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 tiebreak method was the Sonneborn–Berger score.^[2]

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).^[3]

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

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