Skip to content
Paul Keres

File:Paul_Keres.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ207727· pop 56· linked from 327 articles

Paul Keres

Sign in to save

Estonian chess player and sportsperson (1916–1975)

OverviewAI-generated

Paul Keres was a male chess player, chess composer, non-fiction writer, and journalist born in Narva on January 7, 1916. He was educated at the University of Tartu and held citizenship in Estonia, the Soviet Union, and Germany. Keres competed for Estonia, the Soviet Union, and Germany in chess, participating in the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 10th Chess Olympiads. He held the titles of Grandmaster and International Judge of Chess Compositions and received the Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR, Estonian Athlete of the Year, and Order of the Red Banner of Labour.

He authored 24 works, including *How to Open a Chess Game*, *The 14 games played in the match between Paul Keres and Max Euwe (Holland, 1939/40) with notes from various sources*, *Keres' best games of chess, 1931-1948*, *Art of the Middle Game*, and *Maleaabits*. Keres spoke Russian and Estonian. He died of a myocardial infarction, a natural cause, in Helsinki on June 5, 1975. He is buried at Metsakalmistu and had a sibling named Harald Keres.

Synthesized by Vinony from 29 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, MusicBrainz. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
1916
Died
1975
Works
24

Top works

  • How to Open a Chess Game
  • The 14 games played in the match between Paul Keres and Max Euwe (Holland, 1939/40) with notes from various sources
  • Keres' best games of chess, 1931-1948
  • Art of the Middle Game
  • Maleaabits

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Group
Origin
Predazzo
Active from
2016

Discography

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Given name
Paul
Gender
male
Citizenship
Germany
Place of birth
Narva
Place of death
Helsinki
Languages spoken
Estonian
Sport
chess
Country for sport
Germany
Image
Paul Keres.jpg
Show 9 more facts
place of burial
Metsakalmistu
Commons category
Paul Keres
cause of death
myocardial infarction
date of birth
1916-01-07
date of death
1975-06-05
manner of death
natural causes
name in native language
Paul Keres
Elo rating
2565
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~32 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Paul Keres (7 January 1916 – 5 June 1975) was an Estonian chess grandmaster and chess writer. He was among the world's top players from the mid-1930s to the mid-1960s, and narrowly missed a chance at a World Chess Championship match on five occasions. As Estonia was repeatedly invaded and occupied during World War II, Keres was forced by the circumstances to represent the Soviet Union (1940–41, 1944–75) and Nazi Germany (1941–44) in international tournaments.

Keres won the AVRO 1938 chess tournament, which led to negotiations for a title match against the reigning World Champion Alexander Alekhine, but the match never took place due to the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Keres was runner-up in the Candidates Tournament on four consecutive occasions in 1953–1962. Due to these and other strong results, many chess historians consider Keres one of the greatest "Super grandmasters" in history, and, along with Viktor Korchnoi, the strongest player never to become world champion.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Paul Keres” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (11)