Paul Keres is the only chess player to have appeared on the euro currency, his face adorning the two-euro piece in Estonia, where he remains a national hero. Keres has a powerful claim to be regarded as the strongest player never to have won the World Championship. His scalps included Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky and Fischer.
This week’s game, with notes based on those by Zenon Franco in Keres: Move by Move (Everyman Chess) is a crushing victory against another grandmaster who also has claims to be seen as the strongest ever non-world champion.
Korchnoi-Keres: Tallinn 1965; Torre Attack
1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 e6 3 Bg5 h6 4 Bxf6 Qxf6 5 e4 b6 6 a3 The idea of this is to be able to play Nc3 without fearing … Bb4, and then castle queenside. 6 … Bb7 7 Nc3 d6 8 Qd2 Nd7 9 0-0-0 g5 (diagram 1) This caused some astonishment at the time, although with the passing of the years this idea no longer comes as a surprise in such positions.
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