Remembering Paul Keres

It was 1975, the Vancouver Open Chess Tournament. One of the biggest names to attend was Paul Keres. It was at Totem Park in UBC. Just writing that brings up emotional memories of the cafeteria we played in. The Fischer boom in chess was about to go bust. There were 209 players that year. The subsequent annual Paul Keres Memorial Tournaments would rarely break 100.

Anyway, he won the tournament and died within a couple of weeks, on his way home to Estonia. It's all in half-remembered pictures stored in a rarely visited part of my memory. A decent, gentle man so far as I could tell. And a marvel as a chess player. Requiescat in Pacem.

This Week's ChessBase Show: Remembering Paul Keres:

Estonian legend Paul Keres was born 93 years ago today, and although he passed away in 1975, his games are likely to be remembered as long as there are chess fans.

Read the whole thing.

(Via The Chess Mind.)