Ilmar Raud. A Chess Tragedy. Not Forgotten. Part One.
Firstly a genuine apology. The real world has intervened. Having done the research work for this post - one I have been meaning to do for many years - it turned out that I would not be able to do it properly for a number of weeks, so I have put the material onto the page now, and will do it in two parts - most of the actual chess will be in part two..
So, only one of the games is annotated - the last one. If you do nothing else here, go look at it. It's beautiful!
A couple of links where you can find out more - I have no time to do the full story - . Please go look at them.
https://www.europe-echecs.com/art/ilmar-raud-ou-l-envers-du-decor-5898.html
http://www.eestimale.ee/raud2015/iraua-elulugu
My regular sufferers will know that I am the rememberer of the forgotten. Ilmar Raud
was the first of the forgotten who I ever noted. The second proper chess book which I ever studied was the first volume of Keres' Best Games.
His first two recorded competitive games were against Raud. He says this.
''I was selected to play in the team for the city match against Viljandi. I had to play two games against the young Ilmar Raud, who had by then already made a name for himself. The first game ended in a draw and in the second I came down to an ending with two pawns more. Then suddenly Raud put a whole rook en prise! Without thinking for a single second I took the rook and ... in a few moves I was mated. These first hours of instruction were painful, but also very useful."
The games.
Ilmar Raud. twice champion of Estonia - 1934 and 1939. He represented them in 4 Olympiads - 1935, the unofficial 1936 Berlin event, 1937 and 1939. You can find his profile on olimpbase - but the site is down at the moment, so I can not link here. Hmm.
That final event brings us to the tragic story of his death.
The end of the 1939 Olimpiad is something that I have covered more than once in various contexts. You will see in my article on Ludwig Engels that the entire German team decided to stay in South America ( with sad results for Engels)
The Estonian team - running out of money and with unsure circumstances ( which turned out to be horrific ) were struggling.
A report from Päewaleht, nr. 267, 2 October 1939.
Chessmen can't get home from Buenos Aires.
Estonian chess players Paul Keres, Ilmar Raud, Paul Schmidt, Gunnar Friedemann and Johannes Türn. who played in the Tournament of Nations in Buenos Aires with unexpected and remarkable success, cannot return home. The tournament of nations ended already on September 19, and according to the plan, the return trip was supposed to start on September 29 with the Belgian shipping company's steamer "Copaeabana". As it turned out, at the beginning of the war, all passenger ship connections between South America and Europe were cut off. The shipping lines will start operating later, but when, I don't know yet. So there is no chance for our chess players to go to Europe. The Latvian embassy has information that they will not be in Buenos Aires for the time being our chess players' second choice. Unfortunately, if our chess players stay in Buenos Aires for a long time, financial difficulties may also arise ....
Only 1,000 kroons were taken, a large part of which has certainly already been spent; how many Keres had near is not known) unless the Malcliite of Argentina find you to help them. Regarding the return trip by ship, it was assumed that it would be by Belgian ship as far as Antwerp at the expense of the Argentine Chess Federation. The relatives of the chess players in Estonia are anxious; while the family of 3 members of civil servant Türn is facing serious economic difficulties.
According to the Russian magazine "64", the best individual result at the tournament of nations was achieved by the ex-chess champion Capablanca representing Cuba, who won 6 of 11 games, tied 5 and lost none. Capablanca's winning percentage would therefore be 77.3. Next, the best result was achieved by world champion Aljechin, representing France. About the final results it is said that Germany came first with 36 points and Poland came second (the number of points is not indicated). Who was next (either Estonia or Sweden), the usually well-informed chess magazine ''64" does not mention.''
Eventually the rest of the Estonian teams returned home - Keres and Paul Felix Schmidt ended up playing under the occupying Nazis - but Raud did not. Various sources say that his mother, in letters, begged him to return home but he chose not to.
He found a room in a lodging house and tried to support himself by playing chess. Whilst the likes of Najdorf and Eliskases ( and to an extent Engels) managed to survive in that way, Raud was simply not strong enough as a player to make a living.
After his failure in the Mar Del Plata tournament of 1941,
he was out of resources. He left the lodging house - quite possibly he could no longer pay for his room - and wandered the streets. Different versions of what happened next can be found, but basically he was arrested and ended up in an asylum, dying shortly afterwards. It's just a terrible story.
A little of the relevant material. The notice of his death from contemporary newspaper sources via europe echecs.
Barry Wood had a front page article on the story.
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."
Some of the other material that I have.
I have more, but I think you will get the picture now.
To finish this part I will give Raud's most beautiful game, with the invitation to join me next time for a big goody bag of additional material. Hopefully I will see you there to appreciate the chess legacy of one of 'the forgotten'.
