THE TRAGEDY OF PAUL KERES

The latest issue of NEW IN CHESS (#8, 2007) contains a remarkable
article by GM Genna Sosonko about Paul Keres that adds more fuel to
the thesis advanced by GM Larry Evans in Chess Life (October 1996)
that Keres was forced to take a dive against Botvinnik in the 1948
World Championship. Some salient excerpts:

"Playing in tournaments in Nazi-occupied Europe, Keres met Alekhine on
several occasions. 'Do you think the Bolsheviks would dispose of me if
I fell into their hands?' he once inquired of the world champion. 'You
shouldn't even have any doubt' Alekhine replied, 'that they'd shorten
you by a head.'"

"The late David Bronstein recalled: 'In the 1948 match-tournament
everything was done for Botvinnik, as it was known that he couldn't
hold on for more than 15 consecutive games. It was simply a parody of
a tournament -- with a two-week break between The Hague and Moscow. I
asked Keres, 'Paul Petrovich, how could you allow such a thing back
then?' He threw me such a look that I immediately stopped short --
'I'll take, take my question back.'"

"During the championship of the Soviet Union in Leningrad in 1947 a
group of players signed a collective letter in which Keres was branded
'a collaborator' and a 'fascist.' Botvinnik himself insisted that he
was 'above all this nonsense,' adding that perhaps he did sign the
collective letter from the grandmasters, but he never personally spoke
out against the Estonian grandmaster and never plotted against him.'"

"In his last years, when he was in Moscow, Keres telephoned Botvinnik
and visited him at home. The reasons for their confrontations had
evaporated, and Keres discovered another Botvinnik, one who was
considerate and kind. In the late sixties, visiting him at his dacha,
Keres remarked: 'Botvinnik isn't such a bad person after all, he's
nice, friendly.' Maria Keres [his wife] sighed, 'He forgot everything.
Paul forgot everything.'"

"When he died, Ivonin, the deputy chairman of the USSR Sport
Committee, responsible for chess, invited Yakov Neishtadt to see him.
'What material are you planning to publish about Keres?' he asked the
editor-in-chief of 64. 'A detailed obituary, his best games,
everything that such a great player deserves,' Neishtadt replied.
'That's very good, of course, but I would like you not to forget,' the
bureaucrat said, looking him straight in the eye, 'that the death of
Keres is, primarily, a loss for Estonia, and not for the Soviet
Union.'"

"That was how Keres was viewed in Moscow throughout his whole career,
and that was how the attitude towards him remained after his death,
too. He was both their own, and a foreigner in a huge country that no
longer exists, and the authorities never forgot that. He didn't forget
it either."

"The speaker of the Estonian parliament, Ene Ergma, said: 'Paul Keres
didn't give in to ome of the main desires of all totalitarian systems
-- to level society, to force all people to talk identically, and to
dress identically, to suffer identically, and to lie identically. The
elegant Keres in the grey period of Stalinism constantly reminded us
here, in Estonia, of what we had lost and what we would definitely
bring back one day."



EZoto wrote:
Isn't it pretty clear-cut what really happened. Many russian
chessplayers who lived at that time and then came to america seem to
say the same thing or have had similiar stories. Bronsteins book "
The Sorcerer's Apprentice " takes a jab at Botvinnik when they took
the group photo before the WC match saying all good communists on the
right of Folke Rogard. Make it plain and simple: Botvinnik was not a
nice guy at all, but as some russian chessplayers told me you did what
you had to do to live.

EZoto

THE TRAGEDY OF PAUL KERES (Chess Life, October 1996, page 40)

In a groundbreaking article that revived an old debate GM Larry Evans
wrote:

"The first major tournaments in Europe after the war were held in
London, Hastings and Groningen," recently reported CHESS magazine. "It
was unthinkable to hold them without Keres, but that is what happened
-- because Botvinnik did not want him to play."

Taylor Kingston was enraged when he found out the article in CHESS was
written by James Schroeder. He went ballistic and wrote letters to
CHESS and GM Evans chastising them for even quoting Schroeder.

In THE KERES-BOTVINNIK CASE: A SURVEY OF THE EVIDENCE (Chess Life, May
1998, page 49) Kingston arrived at no conclusion about whether Keres
was forced to lose to Botvinnik, and he took a whack at Schroeder
along the way.

The burden of proof is on the prosecution. Such principles apparently
are alien to James Schroeder, who in the 4/96 issue of the British
monthly CHESS espoused the most extreme view I have found on the Keres-
Botvinnik case. Schroeder, an American from Ohio, accuses Botvinnik of
doing "everything in his power to destroy Keres." His allegations
include: that Keres was barred by Botvinnik personally from postwar
tournaments such as Groningen 1946....This is at best speculation and
at worst rubbish. Schroeder's forays into chess history often exhibit
strong prejudice, and are rife with fallacies...."

Yet Keres' widow backs Schroeder's claim in NEW IN CHESS (#8, 2007,
page 82):

"About 15 years ago, when Botvinnik was still alive, the question
arose again of whether he had a hand in Keres' non-participation in
the extremely strong postwar tournament in Groningen in 1946. Maria
Keres decisively refuted the contradictory opinion, that Botvinnik
possibly supported Keres' efforts to play in the tournament, saying
that it could only have been the other way around."

I plan on returning to the issue of Taylor Kingston's "confidential"
letters to playwright Richard Laurie urging him to retract an item he
submitted to Chess Life.

Yours, Larry Parr


wrote:
THE TRAGEDY OF PAUL KERES

The latest issue of NEW IN CHESS (#8, 2007) contains a remarkable
article by GM Genna Sosonko about Paul Keres that adds more fuel to
the thesis advanced by GM Larry Evans in Chess Life (October 1996)
that Keres was forced to take a dive against Botvinnik in the 1948
World Championship. Some salient excerpts:

"Playing in tournaments in Nazi-occupied Europe, Keres met Alekhine on
several occasions. 'Do you think the Bolsheviks would dispose of me if
I fell into their hands?' he once inquired of the world champion. 'You
shouldn't even have any doubt' Alekhine replied, 'that they'd shorten
you by a head.'"

"The late David Bronstein recalled: 'In the 1948 match-tournament
everything was done for Botvinnik, as it was known that he couldn't
hold on for more than 15 consecutive games. It was simply a parody of
a tournament -- with a two-week break between The Hague and Moscow. I
asked Keres, 'Paul Petrovich, how could you allow such a thing back
then?' He threw me such a look that I immediately stopped short --
'I'll take, take my question back.'"

"During the championship of the Soviet Union in Leningrad in 1947 a
group of players signed a collective letter in which Keres was branded
'a collaborator' and a 'fascist.' Botvinnik himself insisted that he
was 'above all this nonsense,' adding that perhaps he did sign the
collective letter from the grandmasters, but he never personally spoke
out against the Estonian grandmaster and never plotted against him.'"

"In his last years, when he was in Moscow, Keres telephoned Botvinnik
and visited him at home. The reasons for their confrontations had
evaporated, and Keres discovered another Botvinnik, one who was
considerate and kind. In the late sixties, visiting him at his dacha,
Keres remarked: 'Botvinnik isn't such a bad person after all, he's
nice, friendly.' Maria Keres [his wife] sighed, 'He forgot everything.
Paul forgot everything.'"

"When he died, Ivonin, the deputy chairman of the USSR Sport
Committee, responsible for chess, invited Yakov Neishtadt to see him.
'What material are you planning to publish about Keres?' he asked the
editor-in-chief of 64. 'A detailed obituary, his best games,
everything that such a great player deserves,' Neishtadt replied.
'That's very good, of course, but I would like you not to forget,' the
bureaucrat said, looking him straight in the eye, 'that the death of
Keres is, primarily, a loss for Estonia, and not for the Soviet
Union.'"

"That was how Keres was viewed in Moscow throughout his whole career,
and that was how the attitude towards him remained after his death,
too. He was both their own, and a foreigner in a huge country that no
longer exists, and the authorities never forgot that. He didn't forget
it either."

"The speaker of the Estonian parliament, Ene Ergma, said: 'Paul Keres
didn't give in to ome of the main desires of all totalitarian systems
-- to level society, to force all people to talk identically, and to
dress identically, to suffer identically, and to lie identically. The
elegant Keres in the grey period of Stalinism constantly reminded us
here, in Estonia, of what we had lost and what we would definitely
bring back one day."



EZoto wrote:
Isn't it pretty clear-cut what really happened. Many russian
chessplayers who lived at that time and then came to america seem to
say the same thing or have had similiar stories. Bronsteins book "
The Sorcerer's Apprentice " takes a jab at Botvinnik when they took
the group photo before the WC match saying all good communists on the
right of Folke Rogard. Make it plain and simple: Botvinnik was not a
nice guy at all, but as some russian chessplayers told me you did what
you had to do to live.

EZoto

On Nov 22, 9:22*am, " wrote:
THE SEARCH FOR A SMOKING GUN

snip pompous nonsense

Crackpots never change. Parr is the same guy who suggested (back in
the pages of the Feb. '85 CHESS LIFE) that Kasparov was being forced
to lose his match with Karpov. It was another example of "the bad
commie beating the good commie, so of course the games must be fixed!"

Did you ever admit your mistake, dumbass?

Charles

OUR FRIEND CHARLES IS BACK

Exhibiting his usual lack of reading comprehension.

Crackpots never change. Parr is the same guy who suggested (back in
the pages of the Feb. '85 CHESS LIFE) that Kasparov was being forced
to lose his match with Karpov. It was another example of "the bad
commie beating the good commie, so of course the games must be
fixed!" -- chasmad

CHESS LIFE, FEBRUARY 1985, page 29

Editor's Note: [As of press time in early December, Karpov leads
Kasparov 5-0 with 26 draws.] Once again, ugly rumors surround a Karpov
title match. If, before, they centered on Korchnoi's son being
physically beaten in a Soviet labor camp on the eve of the 1981 Merano
match, this time it is being said that the KGB has threatened
Kasparov's family should he defeat Karpov. The controversy began on
October 13, when Harry Golombek wrote in The Times (London) that "an
overwhelming victory" by Karpov "would, like Hamlet's uncle's offence,
smell to heaven."

IM Jonathan Tisdall, our reporter in Moscow vigorously rebuts Mr.
Golombek's charges. However, for a wide-range of opinion on the world
championship match, see "Is The Fix on in Moscow?"


************************************************** *********************************

Needless to say, I did not write what chasmad claimed I wrote and this
diversion has nothing to do with the issue at hand.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

On Dec 29, 3:13*am, " wrote:

snip evasions

Needless to say, I did not write what chasmad claimed I wrote and this
diversion has nothing to do with the issue at hand.

How do I explain this in a way that's simple enough for even your
feeble mind to comprehend? Let me try:

The decision to examine the whole idiotic "Is the Fix on in Moscow?"
issue in CHESS LIFE was yours (you WERE the editor, weren't you?).
Instead of praising Karpov's accomplishment -- that of taking a big
lead against a formidable opponent -- you took the opportunity to
insult him, by implying that his victories were perhaps not fairly
earned. It became a "controversy" because you made it one.

The article was typical of a Cold War mentality that poisoned the
pages of CHESS LIFE for years. Your flogging of the Keres-Botvinnik
"controversy" is just another expression of this derangement.

Mercifully, you were fired by the USCF. Maybe there is a God, after
all.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Yes, you can slide back under your rock now.

Charles

WRONG AGAIN

It became a "controversy" because you made it one. -- chasmad

Chasmad lives up to his alias once again. We simply reported a story
that was hot at the time, unlike the current Chess Life that simply
ignores many controversies.

As reported in that same issue of Chess Life (page 31) Several major
newspapers in Western Europe have published reports that the Karpov-
Kasparov championship match is riggued. Harry Golombek, writing in The
Times [London] suggests that "Kasparov has been warned not to play
well and has been given to understand that the consequences for him
and his family would be disastrous if he did."

The article was typical of a Cold War mentality that poisoned the pages of CHESS LIFE for years. Your flogging of the Keres-Botvinnik "controversy" is just another expression of this derangement. --chessmad

The Keres-Botvinnik scandal is important to an understanding of chess
history and new facts are still unfolding.


chasmad wrote:
On Dec 29, 3:13?am, " wrote:

snip evasions

Needless to say, I did not write what chasmad claimed I wrote and this
diversion has nothing to do with the issue at hand.

How do I explain this in a way that's simple enough for even your
feeble mind to comprehend? Let me try:

The decision to examine the whole idiotic "Is the Fix on in Moscow?"
issue in CHESS LIFE was yours (you WERE the editor, weren't you?).
Instead of praising Karpov's accomplishment -- that of taking a big
lead against a formidable opponent -- you took the opportunity to
insult him, by implying that his victories were perhaps not fairly
earned. It became a "controversy" because you made it one.

The article was typical of a Cold War mentality that poisoned the
pages of CHESS LIFE for years. Your flogging of the Keres-Botvinnik
"controversy" is just another expression of this derangement.

Mercifully, you were fired by the USCF. Maybe there is a God, after
all.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Yes, you can slide back under your rock now.

Charles

FEBRUARY 1985 CHESS LIFE (page 29)

Crackpots never change. Parr is the same guy who suggested (back in
the pages of the Feb. '85 CHESS LIFE) that Kasparov was being forced
to lose his match with Karpov. -- chessmad

"Chasmad," an apt self-inflicted monicker, appears
to be a chap from Florida who is afflicted. We treat him
gently because he appears here during periods of
recovery. In these moments he may chat up with the
marchest of hares at the ides, though to be fair to
the man he is no worse than the rest of us until the
breaking point, which is when he requires medically
fruitful ministrations to trim the tread a trifle.

In addition to reading comprehension courses, he
apparently needs anger management classes.

Mr. Mad is among those few who still talk about
American Cold War rhetoric and he fails to realize
that everyone is now a kneejerk anti-Commie. The
winning side churns out the histories and news
stories. As Alexander Griboyedov wrote in Woe from
Wit, "I will tell such truth about you that lies will
be eclipsed."

And, well, the truth about the late Soviet
empire proved so grisly that nothing substantial ever
written by any of Chasmad's hated cold warriors was
materially exaggerated. Indeed, the highest estimates
of unnatural loss of life in the late USSR by the most
anti-communist writers ultimately proved lower than
demographer Murray Feshbach's final conclusions.

As Chasmad would have it, I asserted that the
games of KKI were fixed. Here again is what I actually
wrote, and readers will note that no such assertion
was/is made:

Editor's Note: Once again, ugly rumors surround a
Karpov title match. If, before, they centered on
Korchnoi's son being physically beaten in a Soviet
labor camp on the eve of the 1981 Merano match, this
time it is being said that the KGB has threatened
Kasparov's family should he defeat Karpov. The
controversy began on October 13, when Harry Golombek
wrote in The Times (London) that "an overwhelming
victory" by Karpov "would, like Hamlet's uncle's
offence, smell to heaven."

IM Jonathan Tisdall, our reporter in Moscow
vigorously rebuts Mr. Golombek's charges. However, for
a wide-range of opinion on the world championship
match, see "Is The Fix on in Moscow?"

As of press time in early December, Karpov leads
Kasparov 5-0 with 26 draws.








wrote:
OUR FRIEND CHARLES IS BACK

Exhibiting his usual lack of reading comprehension.

Crackpots never change. Parr is the same guy who suggested (back in
the pages of the Feb. '85 CHESS LIFE) that Kasparov was being forced
to lose his match with Karpov. It was another example of "the bad
commie beating the good commie, so of course the games must be
fixed!" -- chasmad

CHESS LIFE, FEBRUARY 1985, page 29

Editor's Note: [As of press time in early December, Karpov leads
Kasparov 5-0 with 26 draws.] Once again, ugly rumors surround a Karpov
title match. If, before, they centered on Korchnoi's son being
physically beaten in a Soviet labor camp on the eve of the 1981 Merano
match, this time it is being said that the KGB has threatened
Kasparov's family should he defeat Karpov. The controversy began on
October 13, when Harry Golombek wrote in The Times (London) that "an
overwhelming victory" by Karpov "would, like Hamlet's uncle's offence,
smell to heaven."

IM Jonathan Tisdall, our reporter in Moscow vigorously rebuts Mr.
Golombek's charges. However, for a wide-range of opinion on the world
championship match, see "Is The Fix on in Moscow?"


************************************************** *********************************

Needless to say, I did not write what chasmad claimed I wrote and this
diversion has nothing to do with the issue at hand.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.