A tribute to Paul Keres, the Estonian Chess Grandmaster
On the eastern edge of Estonia, about 200 kms away from the capital city of Tallinn, lies the municipality of Narva. The river Narva, which gives the city its name marks Estonia's border with Russia.
A city battered by wars, Narva still retains its charm. Walking along its streets and leafy promenades, on one of the squares, the Peter's square, one will find a Bronze statue of an immaculately dressed gentleman, with a chessboard and a chair opposite to it. The tourists who sit across to pose for a photo are probably better off warned, of wanting to take the empty chair and play, as even the stately statue might beat them at the game.
The statue is that of Paul Keres, the pride of Estonia, one of the greatest chess players in history. It is Narva's tribute to its most famous son. An acknowledgement and in remembrance of the glory he brought to a nation in its tough times.
Born in 1916 in Narva, then in Russia, Keres learnt chess from his father and elder brother
Harald. He seemed to be a natural, and by 1930 he was the Schoolboy champion of Estonia.
It was a time when chess was all about pure talent, With no computers, it was just one human against another. Keres, given that his town had very little chess literature, had to resort to what was called correspondence chess. The chess players used to write their one move on a postcard and send it to their opponent. The opponent would then write his move on a postcard and send it back. The sheer thought of practicing chess this way is unthinkable. A nightmare to the post department, the games would, one could imagine stretch for months. It is said that Keres was playing about 150 correspondence games at one time when he was a child.
By 1935 Keres was the Estonian Chess champion and the chess Olympiad of 1935 announced the arrival of a new star, as Keres played top board for Estonia. It was the golden era of chess with greats like Mikhail Botvinnik, Alexander Alekhine, the great Cuban Jose Raul Capablanca, and Dr. Max Euwe, pushing chess and tactical variations to new horizons. A star was about to be added to the glittering galaxy of chess.
Keres went on to play 4 Olympiads for Estonia up to 1939. In all of them together he played 73 matches and won 44 of them, drew 19, and lost 10.
As Keres started gaining strength in terms of his brilliant play and as his reputation grew, war broke out. Most of Keres's challenges in his chess life were due to wars and the political climate of those days. Estonia as a country was damned to be a tool for military madness given its location. In a short time between 1940 and 1944, it found itself invaded by Russia, then Germany, and then occupied again by Russia. All the while Chess was still being played, Keres played the Russian tournaments, and the Germans sponsored matches as political power kept changing hands. In 1944 Russia annexed Estonia and things settled a bit politically.
Keres and Political trouble
However, for Keres, it was trickier than he thought. He was painted a pro-Nazi and questioned by the Soviets, he, however, managed to avoid any punishment. His entry into international chess was delayed as he was generally shunned when it came to being a part of the Russian team.
He returned slowly to international chess in 1946. In the years to come, he was to be the USSR Champion for three years. He represented USSR in 7 Olympiads from 1952 to 1964 with phenomenal success. His record at these Olympiads spoke volumes of his matchplay prowess. In 88 matches he won 53, drew 32, and lost just 3 games.
In fact at the Olympiad in Helsinki in 1954, Keres finished with 13.5 points from the possible 14, with just one draw. It remains to date one of the best scores in Chess Olympiads.
Keres's playing style was characterized by his brilliant attacking play in his earlier days. It then, tempered with experience, turned into one of tactical brilliance and a deep understanding of Chess theory. He contributed to chess theory with several variations attributed to him, the most famous being the Keres attack variation against Sicilian Defence,
The soft-spoken Estonian was a shining light in the Chess World for more than 30 years. His story is, however one of a player dealt an unfair hand by life, luck, or destiny. He finished second in the Candidates Tournaments, which was the one shot at World Championships in successive 4 attempts. There were unconfirmed rumors that the Soviets had hinted to him about dropping points. These started when in the 1948 Championship, Keres lost 4 games to Mikhail Botvinnik, the Soviet establishment favorite.
This earned him a rather cruelly coined nickname "Paul the Second". He is regarded as the strongest player in chess history not to have won the world championship. In head-to-head matches with world champions like Capablanca, Tal, Keres had more points. He is one of the three players in the world, who have beaten 9 World champions at least once.
When he died in 1975 at the age of 59, he left behind a legacy that chess celebrates to this date. Estonia's greatest sports icon is revered by the people across Estonia. Their love for Keres is a fitting tribute, and probably destiny's compensation for its unfairness. Estonia has a stamp released in his memory and also honored him by featuring him on a 5 Krooni Currency note. Probably the first chess player to be honored so.
It was a story of so near and yet so far, but then his fame has diminished little as his countrymen keep his memories alive.
Keres himself probably summed it up aptly when he said
I was unlucky like my country.
As they would say in Estonia 'Aitah Paul' ..... Thank you, Paul
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Sudhir Bhattathiripad
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