AVRO 1938

AVRO 1938 was an eight-player elite tournament held in several Dutch cities in November 1938. AVRO was the Dutch acronym of the broadcasting organization that sponsored the event. It used a double round-robin format: every player met every opponent twice, once with White and once with Black, for fourteen games per player.

Paul Keres and Reuben Fine both scored 8.5 points. Keres was declared the winner on a tiebreak, an additional rule used to separate players with equal scores. Their result strengthened both players' standing as possible world-title challengers during the unsettled period after Capablanca-Alekhine 1927, when championship challenges still depended heavily on private negotiations.

AVRO is often described informally as a candidates event, but it did not have official qualifying status. World champion Alexander Alekhine had indicated that he was willing to negotiate a match with the winner, while retaining the right to meet other challengers first. The tournament also required frequent travel between cities, and contemporary accounts connected that schedule with physical fatigue.