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1949 Netherlands v Great Britain, 17-18 September, Utrecht

Bd	Netherlands	Rd 1	Rd 2	Great Britain
1b	Dr Max Euwe	1-0	½-½	C Hugh O'D Alexander
2w	Nicolaas Cortlever	1-0	½-½	Reginald Joseph Broadbent
3b	Haije Kramer	0-1	1-0	Sir George Thomas
4w	Theo D van Scheltinga	1-0	1-0	William Albert Fairhurst
5b	Johannes H O vd Bosch	0-1		P Stuart Milner-Barry
5w	(Frans) Louis F Stumpers		½-½
6w	Willem Jan Mühring	1-0	0-1	Dennis Morton Horne
7b	Hendrik Jan van Steenis	0-1	0-1	Dr. Stefan Fazekas
8w	Chris Vlagsma	1-0	½-½	David Vincent Hooper
9b	Franciscus Henneberke	1-0	½-½	(Alfred) William Bowen
10w	Eduard Spanjaard	1-0	1-0	Richard Hilary Newman
	17-18 September 1949	7-3	5½-4½	Round scores
	Utrecht	12½-7½		Total scores

BCM, November 1949, ppn 361-363

ENGLAND v. HOLLAND, 1949 by P Stuart Milner-Barry

Utrecht, September 17th and 18th

The sixth of the new series of matches resulted in a convincing win by Holland at 12½-7½. They won the first round by 7-3 and the second by 5½-4½, and there was no manner of doubt that the better team won. Both teams were at full strength except that Golombek and Prins were both playing in Czechoslovakia, and may be considered to have cancelled each other out. The play of the British team was disappointing; on the first day they were quite outplayed, and on the second they gradually drifted from a highly promising position, in which at one time they even seemed to have a chance of making a fight for the match, into one in which they could hardly hope to do more than win the round by the odd point. Then even the remaining games went wrong, and 5½-4½ to us became 5½-4½ to the enemy. All the more credit to our opponents for the toughness and tenacity they showed when in difficulties—there is little doubt that their gruelling matches with the Czechs, Jugoslavs, and Hungarians stood them in good stead at the crisis.

England had the move on the odd-numbered boards in the first round, Holland in the second.

Round 1 - Saturday 17 September 1949

On the first day Euwe played the Two Knights' Defence against Alexander, who followed (in the 4 d4 variation) a line given in a footnote in "M.C.O." which claimed to give White equality. The authorship was attributed to Euwe, who stoutly disclaims responsibility. Anyway, he found a much better move for Black, and the unfortunate Alexander had to resign on the 20th move; and subsequent analysis could do no better for him.

Broadbent defended against Cortlever's Four Knights with the Metger variation, and got along well enough until, becoming over ambitious, he attempted to win in a drawish position (he had indeed rather the better of it) and allowed Cortlever to break through in the centre with fatal results.

Thomas won a highly characteristic Ruy Lopez against Kramer, outplaying his opponent in a rook and minor piece ending in which two at least of the spectators thought he had the worst of it. True, it should only have been a draw, but who can win unless his enemy makes a mistake?

Fairhurst was defeated in a Queen's Pawn by the redoubtable van Scheitinga, who has an astonishing record in these matches. This was a most scientific exploitation of the minimal positional advantage. Graaf van den Bosch played the Centre Counter against Milner-Barry, and declined the 4 b4 gambit with 4...Qb6. White got a good attack none the less. White has won four out of five games between these two opponents, and the fifth was drawn in his favour.

On Board 6 Horne got into a bad variation of the Queen's [Gambit] against Mühring, and could not develop his Q side pieces. Mühring won several pawns on the King's side with a minor piece attack and demolished him. Fazekas, too, appeared for a long time to have an indifferent game with his Réti against the Dutch President van Steenis. The latter could, in fact, have won a piece at one point, but went astray and Fazekas emerged several pawns to the good in a queen and pawn ending.

The remaining three games were all lost. Hooper was struggling all the way against Vlagsma, who gave him no hope. Bowen had a long, tough game against the baby of the Dutch team, Henneberke, in which both sides appeared to have an extremely difficult position. In the end Bowen sacrificed and did not get his perpetual check, both sides being in desperate time shortage at the end. So were Newman and Spanjaard, after a game more eventful than correct, in which the advantage changed hands with bewildering rapidity. The last word, unfortunately, was with Spanjaard.

Round 2 - Sunday 18 September 1949

On the second day we could hardly hope to do more than recover some lost prestige by winning the majority of games, but we failed even to do that. Euwe allowed himself the liberty of 1 d4 Nf6 2 Bg5 against Alexander. After 13 moves the queens were off and Alexander stood slightly better, but did not feel justified in going on. Broadbent's game was one of many disappointments. Cortlever played the Berlin Defence in the Lopez and Broadbent appeared to have an overwhelming game after a very few moves. So he did, but he never succeeded in knocking his enemy out, and though he reached the adjournment with a winning pawn majority in a queen and pawn ending, after the adjournment he allowed his opponent to get a perpetual check. Needless to say, this is most difficult to avoid in this type of ending, but even so it was sad to see. Broadbent has been a little out of form and a good deal out of luck just lately, but this is no doubt a very temporary setback for so fine a player.

It was equally sad to see Thomas lose, perhaps (though we all hope not) in his last international. All the same, his record of 8½ out of 12 is outstanding, and nobody could grudge Kramer his first win after five successive losses in this series. In a Stonewall Defence Sir George inadvertently allowed a Knight to come in at d6 and his best chance was to give up the exchange for a pawn. Kramer gave proof of his real quality in handling the rest of the game.

Fairhurst induced van Scheitinga into a bad variation of the Tarrasch Defence to the Queen's gambit, and appeared to hold a clear advantage. He let it slip, and, as so often happens, tried to force an advantage that was no longer there. He consumed a great deal of time in doing so, and his game disintegrated with awe-inspiring rapidity.

Count van den Bosch was reported ill, but his substitute, Dr. Stumpers, was fully equal to the occasion and made Milner-Barry work very hard to avoid finding himself with a lost ending. A draw was the correct result. We were all relieved to learn that van den Bosch's mysterious ailment was connected with the devaluation of the pound. He had to attend an emergency meeting of the Netherlands Bank, of which he is a president, and as the matter was at that time secret the real reason could not be given.

Horne won not very convincingly against Mühring. The latter countered the King's Gambit with 3...Be7 (recently re-established by Euwe) and appeared to have the better game when he blundered and lost a piece. On the next board Fazekas cunningly enticed his opponent into losing a piece, but the game thereafter was most lively and entertaining as he had to withstand a fierce attack. Eventually his spare piece entered the fray, and all was over. Two points to the doctor in his first international for England, and if he was a shade lucky two points are two points and what would our score have looked like without them?

Hooper's game was rather dull and early drawn. Bowen had another hard fight, and towards the end seemed to have the best of it in a bishop v. knight ending. But it proved illusory, and he would have had good losing chances if he had persevered. Finally, Newman's game against Spanjaard was the most disappointing of all. All through he appeared to have a splendid attack with two raking bishops against his opponent's Nimzowitsch Defence, but Spanjaard hung on grimly and finally took the initiative to emerge with an easily won rook and pawn ending. So that was that, and it only remains to record the kindness and hospitality of our hosts which made our heaviest defeat hardly less enjoyable than our victories.

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CHESS, October 1949, Vol.15/169, p1, had only the bare score of the match and no game scores.

Record of GB v Netherlands matches

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File Updated

Date	Notes
16 March 1999	First uploaded as a zipped PGN file.
24 September 2025	Viewer, results and report added.