Paul Keres - Pre-war Years

Pre-war Years

Keres achieved a very good result at age 17 in a Master tournament at Tallinn 1933 with 5/7 (+5 =0 −2), tied 3rd–4th, half a point behind joint winners Paul Felix Schmidt and V. Kappe. Keres became champion of Estonia for the first time in 1935. He tied for first (+5 =1 −2) with Gunnar Friedemann in the tournament, then defeated him (+2 =0 −1) in the playoff match. In April 1935, Keres defeated Feliks Kibbermann, one of Tartu's leading masters, in a training match, by (+3 =0 −1).

Keres played on top board for Estonia in the 6th Chess Olympiad at Warsaw 1935, and was regarded as the new star, admired for his dashing style. His success there gave him the confidence to venture onto the international circuit.

At Helsinki 1935, he placed 2nd behind Paulin Frydman with 6.5/8 (+6 =1 −1). He won at Tallinn 1936 with 9/10 (+8 =2 −0). Keres' first major international success against top-level competition came at Bad Nauheim 1936, where he tied for first with Alexander Alekhine at 6.5/9 (+4 =5 −0). He struggled at Dresden 1936, placing only 8th–9th with (+2 =3 −4), but wrote that he learned an important lesson from this setback. Keres recovered at Zandvoort 1936 with a shared 3rd–4th place (+5 =3 −3). He then defended his Estonian title in 1936 by drawing a challenge match against Paul Felix Schmidt with (+3 =1 −3).

Keres had a series of successes in 1937. He won in Tallinn with 7.5/9 (+6 =3 −0), then shared 1st–2nd at Margate with Reuben Fine at 7.5/9 (+6 =3 −0), 1.5 points ahead of Alekhine. In Ostend, he tied 1st–3rd places with Fine and Henry Grob at 6/9 (+5 =2 −2). Keres dominated in Prague to claim first with 10/11 (+9 =2 −0). He then won a theme tournament in Vienna with 4.5/6 (+4 =1 −1); the tournament saw all games commence with the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 Ne4, known as the Dory Defence. He tied for 4th–5th places at Kemeri with 11.5/17 (+8 =7 −2), as Salo Flohr, Vladimirs Petrovs and Samuel Reshevsky won. Then he tied 2nd–4th in Pärnu with 4.5/7 (+3 =3 −1).

This successful string earned him an invitation to the tournament at Semmering–Baden 1937, which he won with 9/14 (+6 =6 −2), ahead of Fine, José Raúl Capablanca, Reshevsky, and Erich Eliskases. Keres, in his autobiographical games collection, refers to this major event as a 'Candidates' Tournament', and claimed that he was recognized as a Grandmaster after winning it, although its parallel connection with later FIDE-organized Candidates' tournaments (from 1950 onwards) is not exact, and the Grandmaster title was not formalized by FIDE until 1950.

Keres tied for second at Hastings 1937–38 with 6.5/9 (+4 =5 −0) (half a point behind Reshevsky), and at Noordwijk 1938 (behind Eliskases) with 6.5/9 (+4 =5 −0). Keres drew an exhibition match at Stockholm 1938 with Gideon Ståhlberg on 4–4 (+2 =4 −2).

He continued to represent Estonia with success in Olympiad play. His detailed results for Estonia follow. Of note was the team bronze medal attained by Estonia in 1939; this was exceptional for a country with a population of less than two million people.

• Warsaw 1935, Estonia board 1, 12.5/19 (+11 =3 −5);
• Munich 1936 (unofficial Olympiad), Estonia board 1, 15.5/20 (+12 =7 −1), board gold medal;
• Stockholm 1937, Estonia board 1, 11/15 (+9 =4 −2), board silver medal;
• Buenos Aires 1939, Estonia board 1, 14.5/19 (+12 =5 −2), team bronze medal.