Keres on Capa and Alekhine - Chess Forums

dannyhume

Jul 1, 2020

0

#1

I found this quote from Paul Keres ...

“It was impossible to win against Capablanca; against Alekhine it was impossible to play.”

I find it fascinating because Keres was up and coming as those two legends were down and going. We have seen lots of hypotheticals, opinions, and discussions regarding Morphy v Steinitz and Fischer v Karpov, but here we have two legends of classical chess, and a common younger opponent who would later be a top competitor.

Does anybody know what Keres or any other top competitor (Fine, Reshevsky, Botvinnik, Bronstein, for instance) thought of Alekhine and Capablanca in comparison to each other?

quietheathen1st

Jul 1, 2020

0

#2

i mean, it comes down to which one of those accolades is most impressive, right?

so alekhine couldnt hope to win agaisnt capa, but capa wouldnt be capable of playing against alekhine. if capa cant play, then the likelyhood of alekhine winning is higher than before.

dannyhume

Jul 2, 2020

0

#3

Keres v Capablanca: +1 =5 -0
Keres v Alekhine: +1 =8 -5

Although it is a young Keres, it is pretty impressive how Alekhine has an overwhelming plus against him whereas Capablanca couldn’t even beat him.

Keres also had a big minus against Botvinnik (not sure how much “fixed” matches play into this), a big plus against Tal, a respectable plus against Euwe, slight minuses against Spassky and Fischer, and even records against Smyslov, Petrosian, and Karpov.

quietheathen1st

Jul 2, 2020

0

#4

im a big keres fan. spassky was also a big keres fan actually.