My favorite game Of. Number 2. Paul Keres.

Back again!

Since Number 1.  of this series only stayed visible for about 40 minutes, most people won't have spotted it, so I will do a quick 'cut and paste' of my intro there to give the idea of what I am doing.

Well, the pressures of work, life and grandparenthood, etc. have recently been playing havoc with the amount of time I have on my hands to put articles together. So, I have decided to change my approach for a few weeks, and start a new series. Hopefully we can make it 'interactive'. So, if you have a favorite game of the given player - post it in the comments! Failing that, say what it is and I will add it there. Also, I would love to see any suggestions of who I should include in the series. Again, just post it in the comments!

As my regular readers will have realised, I am not one who just looks at the most famous games of the most famous players. There is a huge amount of incredible chess out there that people never get to see. For example in my post on Ludwig Engels there is a game which, if it had been played by Alekhine, Tal, Kasparov, or someone of similar reputation, would be in most 'greatest games ever' lists.

So, very often my favorite game of a particular player is not one of their most famous, and I hope that fact will help to make the series worth following. I will try to annotate the games properly!

Paul Keres. The first player who I ever studied properly. He was my teacher, an inspiration, and a chess role model to me. Kamalakanta has a done a couple of wonderful articles involving him recently, including one here that you will find me in the comments on.

He was just a truly, truly great player. I think that everyone should study him. He is in my 'line of stylistic purity' with good reason. My favorite game of his will, I think, or hope!!,  show that. His moves fit the position. If the position demanded quiet positional play, he would find the most straightforward quiet positional move. If the position screamed out ' You have to attack at any cost!!', he would sacrifice, even if the consequences were incalculable. If, in the middle of a combinational storm there was a line that simplified to an ending that he could win, he would forsake the 'brilliancy', and take the objective course. If his opponent, as Flohr did in the game in my Na7!! post, and in the game I give here, fell behind in development in a 'quiet position', he would switch to sharp, open, play. In this game, he then goes from sharp play into an endgame. It is as if he never thought 'that's the move that fits my style so I should play it'.

Also, as I think the header picture is a visual illustration of, he was a nice guy. A good human being.

So, my favorite  Keres game. His opponent was a fascinating and very talented player - Isaac Lipnitsky. I will most definitely post on him at some point, and the game notes are from his incredible book 'Questions of Modern Chess Theory', which anyone owning Fischer's '60 Memorable Games' will have heard of.

One of my favorite old chess photos, of the 'Spartak' team of 1954, has Lipnitski top right. Furman,  Simagin, Nehzmegtdinov, Kholmov, Lipnitski, and Petrosian. Wow!! What a team!! 

For my friend Indrek, and the people of Estonia, on the nations '100th birthday'.

Enjoy the game!