Evans On Chess. June 7, 1996. Copyright Chesstours. All rights reserved.

                                THE KERES FILE

Paul Keres (1916-1975) now adorns Estonia's 5-krone bill. He is often
regarded as the best player who was never allowed to become world champ.

Many fans have long suspected the Soviets made him throw games. Newly
opened KGB files confirm it.

At a tournament in Holland to determine a challenger for the title, Keres
tied America's Reuben Fine ahead of all their leading rivals in 1938. But
the outbreak of WW11 and Alexander Alekhine's death in 1946 left the
title vacant.

Now Mikhail Botvinnik was absolute champion of the Soviet Union, which
had swallowed Estonia, and Keres was in trouble for competing in Nazi
tournaments. The KGB wanted to execute Keres for treason, and his family
was also in jeopardy. His case was examined in the Kremlin and he was
allowed to come home, but the price of his reprieve was to abandon his
quest for the crown.

"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."

FIDE, the world chess body, took control of the crown in 1948 and
required the new champ to face a challenger every three years. Six
players -- 3 Soviets, 3 outsiders -- were invited to play for the title
at The Hague and Moscow. Fine declined to spend three months of his life
watching Russians throw games to each other, which left America's Samuel
Reshevsky and Dutchman Max Euwe alone in a field with Keres, Botvinnik
and Vassily Smyslov.

Keres was the favorite, but his lips always remained sealed about his
awful score against Botvinnik. He lost the first four games and won the
fifth only after Botvinnik had a commanding lead. Close analysis of these
games leaves little doubt that Keres was forced to take a dive.

PRAVDA hailed Botvinnik's triumph in 1948 as "a victory of socialist
culture," yet both Smyslov and Keres refused to shake his hand before it
began. "Our hostility later turned to friendship," said Botvinnik in his
memoirs.

History proved Fine right. In SPORTS ILLUSTRATED Bobby Fischer blasted
Soviet stars for ganging up against him at Curacao 1962. "I had the best
score of anyone who didn't cheat," he said.

The qualifying cycle was changed to a series of one-on-one matches, but
the USSR still pulled the strings. For decades their champions enjoyed
both a rematch clause plus draw odds that made it almost impossible for
outsiders to gain the crown.

At Bled in 1961, when Fischer was 18, he beat Mikhail Tal and Efim
Geller, then boasted he'd crush all four Russians in the field. "That's
impossible," teased Keres. "So far you beat a Latvian and a Ukrainian.
That leaves me, an Estonian, and Tigran Petrosian, an Armenian."

"Never mind what states you come from," glowered Bobby. "You're all
Russians to me!"

Only Keres escaped with a draw.
