Paul Keres was an Estonian chess grandmaster.Keres narrowly missed a chance at a World Chess Championship match on five occasions. He won the 1938 AVRO tournament, which led to negotiations for a World Championship match against Alexander Alekhine, but the match never took place due to World War II. Then after the war he was runner-up in the Candidates' Tournament on four consecutive occasions.
Due to these and other strong results, many commentators consider Keres to be the strongest player never to become World Chess Champion. He was nicknamed "The Crown Prince of Chess"
Keres first learned about chess from his father and older brother. With the scarcity of chess literature in his small town, he learned about chess notation from the chess puzzles in the daily newspaper, and compiled a handwritten collection of almost 1000 games.In his early days, he was known for a brilliant and sharp attacking style.He was a three-time Estonian schoolboy champion, in 1930, 1932, and 1933. His playing matured after playing correspondence chess extensively while in high school. From 1937 to 1941 he studied Mathematics at the University of Tartu, and, according to his biography, represented the school in several interuniversity matches.
Keres became champion of Estonia for the first time in 1935. He tied for first (+5 =1 −2) with Gunnar Friedemann in the tournament, then defeated him (+2 =0 −1) in the playoff match. In April 1935, Keres defeated Feliks Kibbermann, one of Tartu's leading masters, in a training match, by (+3 =0 −1)
Keres played on the top board for Estonia in the 6th Chess Olympiad at Warsaw 1935, and was the new star, admired for his dashing style. His success there gave him the confidence to venture onto the international circuit.
At Helsinki 1935, he placed 2nd behind Paulin Frydman with 6.5/8 (+6 =1 −1). He won at Tallinn 1936 with 9/10 (+8 =2 −0). Keres' first major international success came at Bad Nauheim 1936, where he tied for first with Alexander Alekhine at 6.5/9 (+4 =5 −0). He struggled at Dresden 1936, placing only 8th-9th with (+2 =3 −4), but wrote that he learned an important lesson from this. Keres recovered at Zandvoort 1936 with a shared 3rd-4th place (+5 =3 -3). He then defended his Estonian title in 1936 by drawing a challenge match against Paul Felix Schmidt with (+3 =1 −3)
Keres had an astounding year in 1937. He won in Tallinn with 7.5/9 (+6 =3 -0). Then he tied 1st-2nd at Margate with Reuben Fine at 7.5/9 (+6 =3 −0), 1.5 points ahead of Alekhine. In Ostend, he tied 1st-3rd places with Fine and Henry Grob at 6/9 (+5 =2 -2). Keres dominated in Prague to claim first with 10/11 (+9 =2 -0). He then won a theme tournament in Vienna with 4.5/6 (+4 =1 −1); the tournament saw all games commence with the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 Ne4, which is the Dory Defence. He tied 4th-5th places in Kemeri with (+8 =7 −2), as Salo Flohr, Vladimirs Petrovs and Samuel Reshevsky won. Then he tied 2nd-4th in Pärnu with 4.5/7 (+3 =3 −1). This successful string earned him invitation to the very strong tournament at Semmering 1937, which he won with 9/14 (+6 =6 −2), ahead of Fine, José Raúl Capablanca, Reshevsky, and Erich Eliskases. He was tied for second at Hastings 1937-38 with 6.5/9 (+4 =5 −0) (half a point behind Reshevsky), and at Noordwijk 1938 (behind Eliskases) with 6.5/9 (+4 =5 −0). Keres drew an exhibition match at Stockholm 1938 with Gideon Ståhlberg on 4-4 (+2 =4 −2)
He continued to represent Estonia with success in Olympiad play. His detailed results for Estonia, from http://www.olimpbase.org/players/cq6agwkb.html, follow. The results from the unofficial event at Munich 1936 are from Grandmaster of Chess, by Paul Keres, Arco 1972, p.188. see also
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