Keres Hits The World Stage. A Game I Recognised!

Over on Twitter - yeah, I know it's the land of anonymous abuse, but there is some great chess material to be found there - I spotted this picture.

I recognised the position at once! Game 5 of the second games collection I ever seriously studied - back over 45 years ago! The book in the picture is a Russian original of the great Paul Keres' own best games collection, from 1966 ( he wrote it after going through his games for the wonderful 'Weltgeschichte' series)  I must admit that even though I don't speak Russian, I was rather jealous that she had a copy!! I want one!!!!

Harry Golombek translated it into a multi volume collection, under the series title 'Grandmaster of Chess, and. last I looked, the ever unreliable Wiki says that Keres wrote a book with that title. John Nunn later updated it all in two volumes. I was lucky in my early choice - it's a fantastic piece of work.

The games are wonderful, the notes are outstanding, and the humble way in which Keres takes you along with him on his chess career make you empathise with him.

The volume I have with the game in question.

The position is from the game which first alerted the chess world that a new star had arrived. 

His opponent was William Winter - an English professional, and quite a personality in his own right!

I am lucky enough to have the printed version of his memoirs. Nowadays you can find them online for free - well worth the time spent with them.

https://britishchessnews.com/2020/12/18/william-winters-memoirs/ 

He was a decent player. In the tournament where he lost to Keres, he agreed a draw with Alekhine when he could certainly have played for the win.

A year later he could have become one of the few to beat Capablanca in a tournament game. After what seems to have been a time scramble he reached the time control - move 36, but made one more move just to be sure - an obvious check which turned a won position into a lost one. OUCH!!

Keres in the book. 

FIRST INTERNATIONAL APPEARANCE 1935- 1937

I went with very mixed feelings to my first international tournament,

the Warsaw Chess Olympiad. After the Estonian

Championship I had taken part in a number of events and

attained what seemed like good form ; but it must be observed

that these events bore a local character and it was also known

that at that time Estonian chess life was far from being on an

international level. Hence it might perhaps be feared that my

first contact with the top class of international masters would

result in a veritable catastrophe.

The tournament commenced for me with an alternation of

successes and failures. After a win in the first round I at once

had to meet the world champion, Dr. Alekhine. I managed

to keep on level terms for a long time, but in the end the

world champion's might prevailed. I made a simple mistake,

had to give up two pieces for a Rook and then of course soon

resigned. This game was enough to show that I was lacking in

the necessary chess maturity, the technique and the experience

to fit me to meet the world class type of player. It is therefore no

coincidence that at Warsaw I succumbed to Flohr, Tartakower

and L. Steiner without being able to put up any noticeable

resistance to my experienced opponents.

Amongst these defeats there were also a number of interesting

wins full of incident, of which the short sacrificial game against

the English master Winter is undoubtedly the most

well-known. In the end I succeeded in amassing a good total,

12 points out of 19 games, and thus attained fifth place on first

board. But the most important victory for me in the tournament

was the conviction that a successful contest with leading

international players was indeed possible for me.

O.K. IMHO he was already stronger than he suggests here - anyone could lose to Alekhine and Flohr, etc back then. He could handle himself in positional games - 

(Great picture!!)  - and in complex tactical struggles. This one is a fantastic game!

Ok. Best get to the game which started all this!! Keres' notes from the book, and yes, I think that Winter underestimated the young man - seen here in his match with the fascinating figure  Paul Felix Schmidt - you can go do your own research!!!

Hope you enjoyed the game and the annotations - I learned so much from Keres's notes, and also gained great pleasure - it's O.K. to just enjoy - and love - our beautiful game and it's many wonderful players and writers..