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Mar-20-19
 | | fabelhaft: <Meanwhile we have another scalp for Keres beating world chess champions. Keres vs Menchik, 1939
Vera was Women's world champ at the time> At the same time, if the women World Champions count Korchnoi has wins against Hou Yifan, Chiburdanidze, Stefanova, Xie Jun and Susan Polgar. |
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| Mar-20-19 | | Sally Simpson: ***
Yes indeed fabelhaft, so it looks Korchnoi is well ahead in the who has beat the most World Champions stakes. But...
...in 2006 Korchnoi won the senior World Championship. He finally got his crown. (therefore cannot be the strongest player not to be world champion, he has disqualified himself.) Korchnoi's bogeyman who stopped him from winning the actual World Championship, Anatoly Karpov, was too young (55) to enter! *** |
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| Mar-20-19 | | JimNorCal: Clever point, SS! |
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Mar-21-19
 | | RookFile: Was Paul Morphy a world champion? Some don't think so. If he wasn't then surely he was the strongest never to have been world champion. Actually, he may have been the strongest, period. |
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Mar-21-19
 | | woldsmandriffield: Sally Simpson: I am confused by your suggestion that PK was a stronger player than VK, yet VK was the strongest player not to be world champion. The discussion appears to be about ‘closest’ to becoming world champion. Hence details about players tying matches who were thus ‘close’ to succeeding. Or comparisons between how far and how often players progressed in elimination tournaments, such as the candidates. With respect to the latter, the candidates, PK’s early career predated FIDE control of the world championship. There were simply fewer candidates events for him to qualify from in comparison with VK. There is also the fact that the Second World War precluded a match with Alekhine, which PK was ‘qualified’ to play. Lastly, VK defected from the USSR in 1976/7 and political interference changed its form. The main weapons were a boycott of non championship events and manipulation of venues to keep prize money low, making it harder for Korchnoi to pay seconds. He was, however, free from any overt pressure in terms of actual results. PK’s situation differed and like other Soviet GMs internal politics continued to matter. |
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Mar-23-19
| | nimh: I too think it is hard to defend the point of view that Keres is the greatest player never to win the title. But his position as the greatest one never to play in a title match is quite secure (Let's count Morphy's match against Anderssen as a title match). Rubinstein simply had not enough longevity. |
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| May-01-19 | | drnooo: I have posted this before. But here we go again. Keres came very close to being killed by the soviets. He was trying to escape and about to make the boat out with his wife and on the last day didn't make it. Ever after he knew his rung at the top was not welcome. I maintain the stress killed him. That's just I. For certain however living and playing in the west could well have brought him a worlds championship. The record of his near escape is to be found for all to see. As is his 70 percent wins, eclipsing nearly every great player in the history of the game. A much higher one than Korchnois. Ive always suspected he threw his games with Botvinnik. But for those who feel he was under no threat of death, so be it. And his record against Korchnoi is a pure crush. |
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May-02-19
| | roberts partner: The failed boat escape attempt wasn't quite like that: Keres’ attempts to flee to Sweden came at the last minute. He had agreed to wait with others for a boat to arrive at the coast near Haapsalu. The group of other people waiting for the day that never came included such prominent figures as the writer Friedebert Tuglas and members of the pre-war government. But, as Maria Keres recalls: Our travels did not work out, the big motorboats were simply too afraid to come back already. I was quite content, here was my home. What happened next, I was not able to foresee. We stayed at Tallinn, in the flat where we had so often stayed before: at my school friend's flat on Tehnika Street. |
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May-17-19
 | | Chessical: According to Georges Bertola.
"During one of my meetings with GM Lev Polugayevsky (1934-1995) in the early 90s, he told me the following story about Keres. "It is true that the behaviour of Keres during the war allowed him to be condemned to death or deportation according to our laws. One of the first to help him was Botvinnik, who interceded at the highest levels of state with Molotov (a signatory of the German-Soviet pact). A commission met to decide Keres' fate and opinions were very divided. One of the participants asked this question: 'How many Keres do we have in the USSR?'
After a deathly silence, someone dared to make this reply: 'Unfortunately only one, comrade!'
Chess probably saved Keres' life, but there was definitely a price to pay for it." http://https://www.europe-echecs.co... |
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May-17-19
 | | Gypsy: <...the highest levels of state with Molotov (a signatory of the German-Soviet pact) ...> Vyacheslav Molotov -- best known for the eponymous <Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact>, <Molotov Cocktails>, and <Molotov Bread Baskets>: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyach... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molot... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molot...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molot... |
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Aug-05-19
| | nimh: The residential building is now completed and the statue of Keres has been reinstalled to a new spot right alongside the sidewalk. https://ibb.co/N78gP6q
https://ibb.co/D4tVFKw
https://ibb.co/JnX5jFK |
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Aug-27-19
| | woldsmandriffield: Reflecting further, Botvinnik ought to have walked away in 1963. He knew he would lose to Petrosian and did in fact retire after losing the title match convincingly. My suspicion is that Botvinnik would have stepped down had Keres prevailed at Curacao. Would Keres have beaten Petrosian in a title match? In games played 1959 onwards the two players had an even score drawing most of their games. I think there is a real chance Keres would have prevailed and that is why, after Keres defeated Geller in the candidate’s playoff, Botvinnik played Petrosian. |
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| Aug-27-19 | | Sally Simpson: If it was a Botvinnik - Keres 1963 W.C. match and Botvinnik won all the 1948 shenanigan claims and counter claims would have resurfaced. |
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Feb-06-20
 | | Eggman: Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas passed away just yesterday at the age of 103. Just to put in perspective the man's longevity, consider that he was born the same year as Paul Keres. |
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| Feb-07-20 | | JimNorCal: nimh's photos are great!
Several years ago I found the statue at its old location. It was a struggle! But I was quite happy to succeed. |
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Feb-07-20
| | nimh: The statue at the previous location was indeed easy to miss walking on the street. Trees were around it and the monument itself several meters away from the sidewalk. |
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| Feb-07-20 | | ewan14: While living in the USSR I do not think Korchnoi's life was in danger. Post war Keres' was. Since they are both legends their head to head games should count towards GOAT never to have won the world championship |
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| Feb-07-20 | | ewan14: Unfortunately I do not think Keres would have beaten Petrosian in a title match |
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Jun-05-20
 | | MissScarlett: 45th anniversary of Keres's death; funeral footage (no sound): https://twitter.com/olimpiuurcan/st... |
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Jun-18-20
 | | technical draw: When I first heard of Keres around 1965 I would pronounce his name as Keers. It took a while to change it to Ké-res. Even now I'm not quite sure that's correct. Please put up the correct pronunciation on this great Grandmaster. |
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| Jan-07-21 | | Chessmusings: Happy Birthday Paul Keres https://dailychessmusings.com/2021/... |
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Mar-06-21
 | | Stonehenge: Documentary:
http://www.eha.ee/fa/public//index.... |
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Apr-04-21
| | Caissanist: Joosep Grents, whoever he is, quotes Eduard Tubin, whoever he was, as saying that Keres narrowly escaped being shot by a German firing squad during WWII, in an article for Chess24.com written on the centennial of Keres's birth. I have no idea how much credence to give to that, or to the many other striking stories that Grents/Tubin tells: https://chess24.com/en/read/news/pa... . |
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| Jun-07-21 | | login:
Bio Tubin
https://aviolinslife.org/eduard-tub...
Twitter Grents (inactive)
https://twitter.com/joosepgrents
Credence 9/10 (Tubin is dead, Grents is a secondary source) What I understand his elaborations were 'inspired' by a Kivine Paavo book on Keres (including letter correspondence between the close friends Keres/Tubin, reproduced interviews of Tubin's son). http://etbl.teatriliit.ee/artikkel/...
This Estonian acticle 'Tundmatu Keres ehk Miks malesuurusel ei lubatud maailmameistriks saada' https://epl.delfi.ee/artikkel/72884... with comments (behind a paywall, but fortunately unlockable when fed into specific translators) by Andres Vaher, 2015 on 'Eesti Päevaleht'-Online was quite informative. Again it's up to each the (Estonian) reader to judge the writing style of the book if he/she believes the stories. Gents [who has been awarded a Rector's Prize for his outstanding study results and an exceptional bachelor thesis, see below] does not strike me as a character selling an English audience bogus stories for attention. Still somehow he seems to have moved on. Did this site not have Estonian 'experts' around here before ... Keres playing chess in Tartu 1944/45
https://www.herder-institut.de/such... The Complexities of Hybrid Warfare: A study in ContemporaryMilitary History
https://dspace.cuni.cz/bitstream/ha...
On a different topic
Browne vs Keres, 1975 (kibitz #22) expanding a bit on tympsa's great posting
The Real Coodabeen Champion
'.. It has long been speculated in Estonia that Keres was required to throw his games to eventual winner Mikhail Botvinnik in the 1948 World Championship tournament, though no documentary evidence to support this has ever been produced and neither player ever ‘confessed’. There is no doubt that Keres was never completely trusted by the Soviet authorities, as shown by the cancellation of his Australian tour in the late 1960s. The day before Keres was to board his plane to Sydney, he was told that permission to travel had been cancelled, apparently for fear of establishing links with Australia’s largely anti-communist Estonian community. (Relations between Australia and the USSR had already foundered earlier in the decade after Australia refused to extradite an Estonian immigrant, Ervin Viks, for war crimes during WWII. A 1987 Australian inquiry, after Viks had died, found that Viks was responsible for the death of at least 18,000 people.) ..' https://gardinerchess.com.au/gm-rog... from 'Gardiner Chess' website by Ian Rogers
War crimes trials in Soviet Estonia [1960s]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_c...
Unrelated
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1d...
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| Sep-16-21 | | sudoplatov: Somewhere I read that playing the Sicilian Defense against Keres was nicknamed "Sicilianicide." Quick scan of Keres as White vs Sicilian.
Wins 89
Draws 77
Losses 12
Percentage: 71.6 (wins 1, draws 1/2, losses 0)
Excluding Draws (all, not just GM) 88% |
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