Paul Keres - Dangerous Circumstances

Dangerous Circumstances

The close of World War II placed Keres in dangerous circumstances. During the war, his native Estonia was successively occupied by the Soviet Union, Germany and again the Soviet Union. Estonia had been under Russian control when Keres was born in 1916, but it was an independent nation between the two World Wars.

During World War II, Keres participated in several tournaments in European regions under German occupation including those Nazi-organized (1942 Tallinn, Salzburg, Munich, 1943 Prague, Posen, Salzburg, Reval), and when the Soviets occupied Estonia in 1944, he unsuccessfully attempted to escape to western Europe. His 1942 Nazi newspaper interview was used for anti-Soviet propaganda. As a consequence, he was suspected in Nazi collaboration and questioned by the Soviet authorities. Fortunately, Keres managed to avoid deportation or any worse fate (e.g., that of Vladimirs Petrovs); however, he may have been held in detention; precise details are difficult to pin down.

But his return to the international chess scene was delayed, in spite of his excellent form; he won at Riga 1944/45 (Baltic Championship) (10.5/11). Presumably for political reasons, he was excluded from the ten-player Soviet team for the 1945 radio match against the U.S.A., and he did not participate in the first great post-war tournament at the 1946 Groningen tournament which was won by Botvinnik, just ahead of Euwe and Vasily Smyslov.

He won the Estonian Championship at Tallinn 1945 with 13/15 (+11 =4 −0), ahead of several strong visiting Soviets, including Alexander Kotov, Alexander Tolush, Lilienthal, and Flohr. He then won at Tbilisi 1946 (hors concours in the Georgian Championship) with a near-perfect score of 18/19, ahead of Vladas Mikėnas and a 16-year-old Tigran Petrosian.

Keres returned to international play in 1946 in the Soviet radio match against Great Britain, and continued his excellent playing form that year and the next year. Even after he resumed a relatively normal life and chess career, however, his play at the highest level appears to have been affected by living under the occupation of the Soviet Union, which at a minimum must have aggravated the stress of playing under the watchful eye and tight control of the Soviet chess hierarchy.