PAUL KERES WARTIME TOURNAMENTS 1942–44

1941 July — 1944 October Estonia was occupied by Germany.

Right before and after that, Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union, and then, Paul Keres participated in the chess events of the USSR.

However, in the years 1942–1943, Keres participated in Germany's chess events — in Germany and in the countries occupied by Germany. Also, he participated in one chess tournament in Spain. 

(I am skipping here some tournaments and matches kept in Estonia, Finlandia and Sweden.)

In most of these tournaments, Keres met the world champion Alekhine. Usually, Alekhine won the first prize, and Keres won the second prize. Only once, they tied to the I–II place.

In 1941, Alekhine had criticized jews and Max Euwe. This was one of the main reasons why the ex-champion of the world Euwe avoided these tournaments.

SALZBURG 1942  Alekhine — I,  Keres — II

MUNICH 1942  Alekhine — I,  Keres — II

PRAGUE 1943  Alekhine — I,  Keres — II

POZNAN 1943  Keres — I

SALZBURG 1943  Alekhine & Keres — I–II

MADRID 1943  Keres — I

After the II WW, the world champion Alekhine was generally despised and repulsed. He had criticized the communists already before the war and at the wartimes too. In 1941, he had made several anti-Jewish statements. 

Alekhine died on 24. March 1946 in Portugal. But perhaps he was murdered.

In turn, at the wartimes, Keres kept a low profile.

Simultaneous exhibition.

Poznan 1943

According to Soltis (Soviet Chess 1917–1991), in the Soviet Union as well, at the wartimes strong chessplayers were giving simultaneous exhibitions to the militants, in the hospitals, etc.

Nevertheless, after the II WW, Paul Keres was in serious trouble in the Soviet Union. His participation in the chess tournaments of 1942–1943 was why he was suspected of being a nazi, a fascist and so on.

After Keres had won the AVRO tournament, he was regarded as the first contender for the world champion's title. But he never made it. Keres was probably repulsed by the soviets.

As late as in 1966, Keres wrote in his book 100 Games (in Russian) that at the wartimes 

"... the circumstances forced me to play chess."