The Strongest Chess Tournament of All Time? AVRO 1938

Masters and Matches: A History of Chess

Masters and Matches: A History of Chess
The Strongest Chess Tournament of All Time? AVRO 1938
Jun 30, 2026 Season 1 Episode 11
Peter Doggers & Arne Moll

The AVRO 1938 tournament was one of the strongest in history, with the top eight players in the world participating: Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Botvinnik, José Capablanca, Max Euwe, Reuben Fine, Salo Flohr, Paul Keres and Samuel Reshevsky. It was intended to function as a Candidates Tournament, with Alekhine playing the next world championship match against the winner (although he did not agree to this without setting some conditions).

Hosts Peter Doggers and Arne Moll discuss the situation in the chess world in the 1930s, the grueling schedule of the tournament (with every round held in a new city!), the progression of the tournament, its most famous games, and more.

Keres-Capablanca:

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1071884

Botvinnik-Alekhine:

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1013309

Botvinnik-Capablanca:

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1031957

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About the hosts:

Peter Doggers has played chess for over 30 years and written about it for almost 20. He regularly writes for Chess.com and New in Chess. He is the author of The Chess Revolution and also hosts The Chess News Podcast.

https://peterdoggers.com/

Arne Moll has played chess even longer than Peter and also loves to write about it. He contributed many thought-provoking articles to the website ChessVibes.com between 2007 and 2013 and recently published his first book as well, called The Center Game.

https://www.newinchess.com/the-center-game

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