Remembering one of the world's best chess players - Paul Keres on his 95th birth anniversary

Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hello Everyone,

January 7 is the 95th birth anniversary of the great Estonian chess player Paul Keres. You can find a beautiful tribute to the grandmaster in Russian at the www.chess-news.ru website.

On the occasion, none other than the former World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov, visited Tallinn on Wednesday to be the honorary guest at the celebrations of the 95th birth anniversary of Paul Keres.

“An event connected to Paul Keres is always a priority for me,” Karpov said. “I attended the 90th birth anniversary celebrations of Keres here and we used to be very good acquaintances. Although we had a big age gap, 35 years, we had a very interesting time together with Paul Keres,” said Karpov.

Karpov played a 17-board simul on the occasion with a host of Estonian public figures and celebrities. Jüri Järvet Jr., an actor and former theater director, accepted a surprisingly early draw offer from Karpov after beginning with the Ruy Lopez.

"A draw because he played well, and as it later became clear, he is a big chess lover. I later found out that we have met before,“ said Karpov.

The celebrations also include an all-play-all rapid tournament with Alexei Shirov, Jaan Ehlvest, Elshan Moradiabadi and Aleksandr Volodin plus three other players from a preliminary event. Lajos Portisch would also present a lecture.


Here is a beautiful video in Estonian on the grandmaster from a 'Models of Success'. Don't worry, it has subtitles in plenty of languages.


 


From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
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