Sitting down to play Yefim Bogoljogow in Salzburg in 1943, Paul Keres was into his third nationality as the tides of war swirled around him.
Our grandfather had already died in battle when Keres started the game that would enter chess history as the Keres Attack. The 27-year-old won the game and the tournament, placing first equal with the world champion, Alexander Alekhine.
Keres conjured up his original 6th move as white at the board, moving a pawn in front of his king’s knight up two squares to launch a direct assault on black’s king.
It was a bold move at a time of his career already known for attacking brilliancies. In 1938 Keres won a crucial tournament in the Netherlands earning the right to challenge Alekhine for the world title; delays in setting a date led to no match taking place; the war then prevented it, and Alekhine died in 1946.
When Germany marched into Poland the world’s top players were gathered in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the 1939 chess Olympiad, and Keres tied first. Some stayed in BA; Keres returned home to occupied Estonia – notionally at some personal risk, although both Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany valued chess as a game of strategy, continued running tournaments, and needed known players to participate.
In 1940 Keres placed 4th in the USSR championship in Moscow, and 2nd in a tournament in Leningrad the following year. On Estonia’s arrival in the Third Reich, Keres played in six tournaments, placing first or second each time. And then Salzburg, followed by five tournaments, in all of which he finished first, except for one in which he came second. In 1947 he won the USSR championship for the first time. Keres seemed unstoppable.
“The ‘Crown prince of chess’ was universally admired for his clearcut style of play, and chivalrous personality,” writes Egon Varnusz, a Hungarian grandmaster, in his two-volume work, Paul Keres’ Best Games (1987).
And then disaster struck. Keres tied for 3rd and 4th place at a 1948 tournament held to determine Alekhine’s successor. The winner was Finnish-born Mikhail Botvinnik who held his title until 1963 with two 1-year interruptions, first Vassily Smyslov, and later Mikhail Tal.
A career followed for Keres of alternating exasperating defeats and stunning successes - USSR champion in 1950 and 1951, and placing either second, 3rd or 4th in numerous candidates’ tournaments, the last in Curaçao in 1962, where he finished ahead of the rising star Bobby Fischer, and only just lost to Tigran Petrosian.
Keres used his 6th move against the Scheveningen variation of the Sicilian Defence only a few times in his career. A diverse player, he invented or improved many variations in other opening systems. He wrote several books on chess, including one on end games that is still widely read today by chess enthusiasts.
Boris Spassky and Fisher took to the Keres Attack, as did Anatoly Karpov, successive world champions, Karpov gaining the title the year Keres died, 50 years ago. In 1976 Karpov used it against Yosif Dorfman in a game ranked among the 125 best ever played (between 1834 and 2010). While a favourite winning strategy, Karpov could also lose with the Keres Attack, and did spectacularly in 1983 against a much lower-rated player.
Wars come and go; so do chess players, while some chess opening variations stand the test of time. Will the Keres Attack?
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