Paul Keres - World War II

World War II

At the outbreak of World War II, Keres was in Buenos Aires for the Olympiad. He stayed on to play in a Buenos Aires international tournament after the Olympiad, and tied for first place with Miguel Najdorf with 8.5/11 (+7 =3 −1).

His next event was a 14-game match with former World Champion Max Euwe in the Netherlands, held from December 1939 –- January 1940. Keres managed to win a hard-fought struggle by 7.5–6.5 (+6 =3 −5). This was a superb achievement, because not only was Euwe a former World Champion, but he had enormous experience at match play, far more than Keres.

With the Nazi-Soviet Pact having been concluded on August 23, 1939, Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union on August 6, 1940. Keres played in his first Soviet Championship at Moscow 1940 (URS-ch12), placing fourth (+9 =6 −4) in an exceptionally strong field, placing him ahead of the defending champion Mikhail Botvinnik, among others. The Soviet Chess Federation organized the "Absolute Championship of the USSR" in 1941, with the top six finishers from the 1940 championship meeting each other four times; it was split between Leningrad and Moscow. Botvinnik won this super-strong tournament, one of the strongest ever organized, with 13.5/20, and Keres placed second with 11/20, ahead of Vasily Smyslov, Isaac Boleslavsky, Andor Lilienthal, and Igor Bondarevsky.

With the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Estonia came under German control soon afterwards. During 1942 and 1943, Keres and Alekhine both played in four tournaments organized by Ehrhardt Post, a President of Nazi Grossdeutscher Schachbund. Alekhine won at the Salzburg 1942 chess tournament (Six Grandmasters' Tournament) in June 1942, at Munich (European Individual Chess Championship) in September 1942, and at Prague (International Tournament) in April 1943, always ahead of Keres, who placed second in all three of those tournaments. They tied for first at Salzburg (Six Grandmasters' Tournament) in June 1943, with 7.5/10.

During World War II, Keres played in several more chess tournaments. He won all 15 games at Tallinn 1942 (EST-ch), and swept all five games at Posen 1943. He also won at Tallinn 1943 (EST-ch), and Madrid 1944 (13/14, +12 =2 −0). He was second, behind Stig Lundholm, at Lidköping 1944 (playing hors concours in the Swedish Championship). Keres won a match with Folke Ekström at Stockholm in 1944 by 5–1 (+4 =2 −0).