GrahamClayton: A report on Raud's death from the October 1941 issue of "CHESS" magazine:"RAUD, THE YOUNG ESTONIAN MASTER, STARVES TO DEATH
At third board of the Estonian team was Ilmar Raud. Estonian champion in 1934, performances for his native country had been little inferior to those of his distinguished friends Keres and Schmidt. English chess followers had met him in Margate, the Easter before, where he took fourth place in an exceptionally strong Reserves tournament.
During the Buenos Aires tournament, the war broke out...Raud remained behind with many others...Of these masters, Najdorf, Eliskases and Stahlberg are experts of the topmost calibre, who could be relied on to make their way in any community with a pretension to civilisation. Najdorf's success has been scintillating; as one of the greatest lightning players of all time, he has been able, through whirlwind simultaneous displays, to make money - and spend it - like water.
But what of those not quite top-notchers? The history of chess is studded with miserable stories of near-success, and now Ilmar Raud, in dying, has given us another. His play had always shown flashes of brilliance but that solidity essential for a consistent record was not there. It is said that his mother begged him to return home and that one of his brothers was killed when the Soviets annexed Estonia.
The long-awaited tournament at Mar del Plata gave the many European masters their chance. Stahlberg's triumph was Raud's failure: he could only finish fourteenth out of eighteen players, with four of the five Argentine players above him. That meant that whilst Stahlberg would be offered many and many an engagement and be welcomed as tutor in many a rich home, Raud would be unwanted. There is not even a bare subsistence in Argentine cafe chess. Soon after, came Raud's last tournament, an event staged by the Circolo Argentino. His principal competitors were Frydman, who finished first, and Grau and Luckis who tied for second place. Raud led the tournament for several rounds, but then began to slip back. He refused to participate in the supper offered by the officials of the organising body. In the final score-table he finished fourth.
Conditions in South America's chess world are extraordinary. Grau has achieved a position of extraordinary power and influence and is virtually dictator of Argentine chess; it is authentically stated that his chess organising activities have netted him at least 5,000 pounds in two years. Yet tournament after tournament goes through in the most haphazard and unsatisfactory fashion. Dates and venues are altered at random; even at Mar Del Plata, the masters' accommodation was very unsatisfactory and the bonus per point, originally announced as ten pesos, turned our finally to be eight only. Sometimes no prize-money is paid until weeks after the tournament is over.
Through the Circolo Argentino's tournament (which Grau organised) finished in April, the prize distribution did not take place until June 29th (a personal telephone call by Luckis to Palau, Grau's right-hand man achieved this!).
Raud's prize was only a few shillings. At 10.00 am on that very June 29th, he left his poor lodging-house never to return. He was found wandering in the streets and was arrested by police. It is said there was a fight, and visitors subsequently observed obvious evidence of blows. He spent a bitterly cold night in the police yard, and the next day was sent to a lunatic asylum, where he died at 2.00 am, on July 13th, at the early age of 27. The doctor's certificate gave, as cause of death, general debility and typhoid fever, but the general verdict is - starvation! His body was cremated, and the ashes have been conveyed by the Estonian consulate to Europe."
Kibitzing
