On January 7, 1916, Estonian chess grandmaster Paul Keres was born. Taught from his father and older brother, Keres found an interest in chess early in life. He won three separate tournaments as a student in Estonia, and was well-renowned for his brilliant and sharp attacking style. When attending the University of Tartu, Keres, like many other chess masters, studied Mathematics and represented his school in several interuniversity chess matches.
In 1935, Keres became the chess champion of Estonia, defeating Gunnar Friedemann for the title. Keres began earning acclaim by playing on the top board for Estonia in the 6th Chess Olympiad at Warsaw.
1937 proved to be a fantastic year for Paul Keres, earning him a win in Tallinn (+6=3-0), a tie for first in Margate against Reuben Fine (+6=3-0), placing him above Alexander Alekhine. In Ostend he tied once more with Fine and Henry Grob (+5=2-2), and in Prague he crushed his opponents, taking first place(+9=2-0). These are just a few of Keres’ many successes of 1937. These and many more earned him an invitation to the reputable tournament at Semmering, in which he triumphed(+6=6-2), placing him in first ahead of Fine, José Raúl Capablanca, Erich Eliskases and Reshevsky.
In 1938 in the all-star AVRO tournament Keres and Fine tied for first with 8.5/14, placing him ahead of legends such as Mikhail Botvinnik, Euwe, Alekhine, Reshevsky, Capablanca, and Flohr. Keres won the aforementioned tiebreak, beating Fine 1½-½. Keres was expected to become the next challenger for the World Champion title against Alexander Alekhine, but with WWII’s appearance, negotiations with Alekhine were brought to a halt. Keres returned to university studies, opting to concentrate more on schooling than his chess career.
Estonia later was invaded and subsequently controlled by Germany, and soon Keres and Alekhine seemed to become almost like rivals. They both participated in the Salzburg chess tournament and the European Individual Chess Championship in 1942 and at Prague (International Tournament) in 1943. Each of these battles found Alekhine directly ahead of Keres, with Alekhine in first and Keres in second. At the next Salzburg tournament in 1943, however, they tied for first with 7.5/10.
An Estonian in a German world, Keres found himself harassed by Soviet authorities on multiple occasions, most notably during the 1948 World Championship tournament, where Soviet chess officials threatened him to throw matches to allow Botvinnik to take the title of world champion. Keres chose to play fairly, but still did not manage to win the title.
Later achievements of Paul Keres include seven team gold medals in the Olympiads, five board gold medals again in the Olympiads, sharing first place with World Champion Tigran Petrosian in the 1963 Piatigorsky Cup, sharing first again with Petrosian in 1964 in Buenos Aires, and Tallinn in 1975.
He continued to play chess actively until his death in 1975.
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