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FIDE names 2016 Year of Paul Keres

BC, Tallinn, 25.11.2015.Print version

The World Chess Federation, FIDE, has named 2016 the Year of Paul Keres after the legendary Estonian chess grandmaster born in the town of Narva on Jan. 7, 1916, informs LETA/BNS.

 

In connection with the centenary of Paul Keres, the Estonian Chess Federation in cooperation with the Estonian government and the Estonian Olympic Committee will organize a year-round international memorial festival Paul Keres 100, which will start on Dec. 8, 2015 with the international youth tournament "Chess Stars of the Baltic Sea Region in Narva. The concluding event of the festival will be the European Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in Parnu in December 2016, the Estonian Chess Federation said.

 

Already in 1938, Keres earned the right to play a world championship match against Alexander Alekhine after winning the AVRO tournament in Holland, but the match never took place due to the outbreak of World War II. After Alekhine's death, the Hague-Moscow match tournament was held in 1948, with its winner crowned as the new world champion. Keres finished that tournament in places 3-4. Since then, Keres was one of the main contenders for the title of world champion. In the candidates tournaments, he finished in 4th place in Budapest in 1950, in 2-4 in Zurich in 1953, in 2nd place in Amsterdam in 1956, in 2ndplace in Bled in 1959, and in 2nd place in Curacao in 1963.

 

The successive second places earned Keres the nickname "The Eternal Second."

 

In 1939, Keres came third at the Buenos Aires Chess Olympiad in Argentina representing Estonia.

 

To mark the 100th anniversary of Keres's birth, the Bank of Estonia will issue a 2-euro memorial coin and the postal company Eesti Post a postal stamp dedicated to Keres.





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