paul keres

• muhtemelen dünya şampiyonu olamamış en güçlü oyuncudur (rubinstein'in yeterince oyununu incelemediğim için bunları söylüyorum) ilginç bir anekdot.
  there have always been dark rumours around the world championship tournament of 1948: keres lost his first four games against botvinnik after weak play, and won the fifth when botvinnik was already champion.
  in 1948, botvinnik was the first soviet world chess champion the nation was waiting for; a russian, a model communist, while keres was in a difficult position. he was an estonian, had thereby become a soviet citizen only in 1940, but a german subject after the occupation in 1941. up to 1943 he played tournaments in germany, after which he went to spain, finland and sweden and, when the war was over, to estonia which had become part of the soviet union again in the meantime. he only did so after having been promised that his playing in nazi-germany would be forgiven, but he had to promise he would leave his rights to a title match against alekhine, which he had obtained before the war, to botvinnik. he also was barred from playing important tournaments for a few years.
  when, after alekhine had died in 1946, there was going to be a tournament for the world title in 1948, keres could not be passed over. his 1-4 against the intended soviet hero botvinnik has always aroused the suspicion that the authorities had forced him to throw these games, whether botvinnik knew about this or not. for more details, see two interesting articles at the chess cafe by taylor kingston; kb1.txt and kb2.txt. kingston's conclusion is that, at this moment, there is no proof of foul play.
  however, there is an interview max pam and genna sosonko made in 1991 with botvinnik, and which you can read in full (in dutch) at max pam's site. when they asked the patriarch if he had ever encountered collusion between soviet players in his playing days, his answer was: "i have experienced myself that orders were given. in 1948 i played with keres, smyslov, reshevsky and euwe for the world title. after the first half of the tournament, which took place in the netherlands, it was clear that i was going to be the new world champion. during the second half in moscow something unpleasant happened. at a very high level, it was proposed that the other soviet players would lose against me on purpose, in order to make sure there was going to be a soviet world champion. it was stalin personally who proposed this. but of course i refused! it was an intrigue against me, to belittle me. a ridiculous proposal, only made to put down the future world champion. in some circles, people preferred keres to be world champion. it was disgraceful, because i had already proven by and large that i was stronger at that time than keres and smyslov."
  a nonsensical answer, but telling all the same. people preferring keres? botvinnik had been an intended soviet hero for at least ten years; the estonian keres with his tainted war past as the first soviet world chess champion was unthinkable. and saying no to a proposal from stalin? even so: botvinnik admitted to a high-level plan for foul play in the 1948 tournament—and that he and keres were involved.