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Paul Keres - The World`s Greatest
Paul Keres` Game That Got Him The GM Title - Paul On Left

Paul Keres - The World`s Greatest

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JumpingCast1e
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Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, and Bobby Fischer. These are the names of the world`s greatest, but not the greatest. Today I come to you with a question; “Who was Paul Keres?”

The late Paul Keres was an Estonian chess player and writer. He was among the world`s best players in the 1930`s to the 1960s and in 1950 he was awarded the FIDE title of Grandmaster. Now you may be wondering why I`m speaking to you about a deceased Grandmaster from Russia. This is because Paul had something that no other player to this day has, statistics.

Between Paul`s multi-decade career (1929-1975) he had the highest win rate of any player past or present. He had an extraordinary record of 70% wins and draws against other 2000+ FIDE rated players. As well as this, Mr. Keres has beaten more world champions than any other player as well. Winning a total of 38 times against Alekhine, Capablanca, Euwe, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, and Fischer.

Moreover, he won the 1938 AVRO tournament, which led to negotiations for a title match against champion Alexander Alekhine, but the match never took place due to World War II. After the war, Keres was runner-up in the Candidates' Tournament on four consecutive occasions. Due to these and other strong results, many chess historians consider Keres the strongest player never to become world champion. He was nicknamed "Paul the Second", "The Eternal Second" and "The Crown Prince of Chess". Keres was the only player in chess history to defeat nine undisputed world champions.

Finally, in 2000 Keres was elected the Estonian Sportsman of the country before “The World Chess Federation” unofficially named 2016 the year of Keres. This goes perfectly with the Chessmetrics system as it places him as one of the top 10 players in the world.

I would like to thank him for bringing us the quality of chess that we have begun to love so deeply by all today. Below is a list of his notable games and books:

Notable Games

  • Keres vs Alekhine, Margate 1937, Ruy Lopez. Here Keres outplayed Alekhine already in the first 15 moves. The game is crowned by two small combinations.
  • Keres vs. Capablanca AVRO Amsterdam 1938, French Defence. Almost unpredictable jumps of the white knight slowly destroy Black's position. A beautiful tactical
  • Euwe vs. Keres, Amsterdam 1940 (match), Queen`s Indian Defence. Black reveals a series of brilliant tactical surprise moves, concluding elegantly against the former world champion.
  • Keres vs. Sajtar, Amsterdam 1954, Sicilian Defence. A typical Sicilian sacrifice on e6 leads to swift
  • Keres vs Botvinnik, Moscow 1956 (Alekhine Memorial), Sicilian Defence, Richter–Rauzer Attack. Keres had a minus score against Botvinnik, but here he defeats the world champion in convincing positional style.
  • Keres vs. Edgar Walther, Tel Aviv 1964, King`s Indian Defence. The game where Keres introduced a new plan against the King's Indian: Bg5, h4, Nh2, and a sacrifice on g4.

Books

  • Keres, Paul; Kotov, Alexander (1964). The Art of the Middle Game. Penguin Books.
  • Keres, Paul (1973). Practical Chess Endings. R.H.M. Press. 
  • Keres, Paul (1960). Keres' Best Games of Chess. Ishi Press