An Early Keres Game

Felfpost chess set

    In 1942, Nazi Germany was at the pinnacle of its territorial expansion but began to suffer significant setbacks, notably in the Eastern Front with the failed Operation Barbarossa and the disastrous outcome at Stalingrad. 

     In spite of those setbacks German chess was going string and tournaments were used fot propaganda tournaments like the "1942 European Individual Chess Championship that was held in Munich. Of course, it was no such thing because players from enemy countries and Jewish players were excluded. Another prominent tournament that year included Salzburg and German players competed in events in occupied countries. 

     Chess was also popular with the German military and so the Feldpost chess set was introduced to provide entertainment for soldiers. The German military postal service distributed these sets which featured folding boards and flat cardboard pieces. These cheap sets were often combined with checkers. 

    The 1942 European Individual Chess Championship was held in Munich. It was a propaganda effort organized by Ehrhardt Post (1881-1947), a key official in the Nazi German chess federation. 

 Keres’ opponent was Braslav Rabar (1919-1972, 54 years old) who was born in in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. Awarded the IM title in 1952, he played in 13 Yugoslav Championships and won the title in 1950 and shared it in 1954. He is best remembered for designing the opening classification system that was used in the Chess Informant. 

[Event "Munich"] [Site ""] [Date "1942.09.15"] [Round "?"] [White "Paul Keres"] [Black "Braslav Rabar"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C90"] [Annotator "Stockfish 17.1"] [PlyCount "63"] [EventDate "1942.??.??"] {C88: Closed Ruy Lopez} 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. a4 {Rather unusual. 9.d3 is more common. At the time it was an unexplored move and Keres no doubt played it for surprise vale against his less experienced opponent.9 . . .} Rb8 {Black has two better moves: 9...Bg4 and 9...b4. While the move played is not bad, Alekhine considered it a positional error that allows white to obtain a dominate position/} 10. axb5 axb5 11. d4 {This is the dominanting position Alekhine was referring to because now white threatens to win a piece and obliges blavk to exchange which opens up dangerous lines if attack.} exd4 {It's interesting to note that while Alekhine believed white has a dominating position engines evaluate the position as equal. However, in practice white wins the overwhelming majority (+25 -9 =6) in my database.} (11... Kh8 {This is a pass to show the threat Alekhine was referring to.} 12. d5 {and the N has nowhere to go.}) 12. cxd4 Bg4 {This is almost always played, but black would do better to challenge white's center directly with 12...d5} (12... d5 13. e5 Ne4 14. Nc3 Nxc3 15. bxc3 Bf5 { with equal paly.}) 13. Nc3 Qd7 (13... b4 {is nowhere as good as it might look!} 14. Nd5 Bxf3 15. gxf3 {and white is much better. Fiedorek,M (2303)-Kuderinov,K (2404) chess.com INT 2022}) 14. Be3 (14. d5 {is equally good, but Keres prefers an open position.} Bxf3 15. gxf3 Ne5 16. f4 Qh3 17. Re3 {White is slightly better. Volokitin,A (2634)-Votava,J (2529) Austria AUT 2019}) 14... Bd8 {If white plays d5 he wants to be able to play ...Ne7} 15. Qd3 {A real GM concept! He permots ...Bxf3 which gives white the two Bs and the semi-open g-file on which he can hope to conduct operations. The enginbe way is 15.d5} Bxf3 {It's [oor judgment to allow white the aforementioned advantages without receiving anything un return.} (15... Nb4 16. Qf1 Re8 17. Ng5 Bh5 18. f3 { Kindermann,S (2495)-Ljubarskij,J (2305) Hamburg 1993, Now with 18...d5! black would have equalized.}) 16. gxf3 Ne7 {This makes it possible to transfer the the N to the K0side for defensive purposes and it's good strategy.} 17. Kh1 Ng6 {This is consistent, but he could have better delayed it with the aggressive 17...Qh3} (17... Qh3 {forces white to defend the P in f3.} 18. Qe2 {Now black has time to get some play on the Q-side.} b4 19. Nb1 c5 {with equal chances.}) 18. Rg1 Nh5 {Alekhine observed that black is not playing for an attack here, but rather he is trying to defend against the "growing pressure in the cemter. " However, once agin, he missed the ebst defense with 18...Qh3} (18... Qh3 19. Rg3 Qc8 20. Rag1 c5 {White is beeter, but at least black has some play.}) 19. Qf1 Kh8 {Alekhine was crtical of this move whic he said only wastes time. Both Stockfish and Komodo like though.} 20. Ne2 c6 (20... f5 {This attempt to challenge white's center loses to} 21. Qh3 Nh4 22. Bg5 {wins a piece.}) 21. f4 {This start if a gane winning attack.} d5 22. f5 Nh4 23. f3 {The immediate 23. Qh3 was even stringer.} Qe8 24. Nf4 Nf6 25. Qh3 {The B has nowhere to go. Technically black is lost, but Rabar comes up with a clever sacrifice that while not sufficient to save the game was certainly worth trying.} Nxe4 26. fxe4 Qxe4+ 27. Ng2 Nxf5 {This gives black 3 Ps for a B, but in this position it's not enough compensation to save the game.} (27... Bf6 {would have enabled him to hold out a longer. For example} 28. Raf1 Rbe8 29. Rf4 Qd3 30. Bc2 Qxc2 31. Nxh4 Qe2 32. Bc1 Qh5 {White has a small materia; advantage, but there is no forced win and so he still has a lot of work to do.}) 28. Bf4 Rb7 29. Rae1 Qxd4 30. Qxf5 Qxb2 31. Be5 Qxb3 32. Re3 {Black resigned. The addition of the R to the attack spells the end.} (32. Re3 Qc4 33. Bxg7+ Kg8 34. Bf6 Bxf6 35. Nf4+ Bg7 36. Rxg7+ Kxg7 37. Rg3+ {mate next move.}) 1-0