Closed Ruy Lopez (Worrall Attack)
White: Sune Hjorth
Black: Paul Keres
Location: Lidkoping 1944
1. e4 e5 2. Pf3 Pc6 3. Lb5 a6 4. La4 Pf6 5. 0-0 Le7 6. De2 b5 7. Lb3 0-0 8. c3 d5 9. exd5? Lg4!? 10. h3 Lxf3 11. Dxf3 e4 12. De2 Pa5
13. Lc2 Dxd5 14. d3 exd3 15. Lxd3 Tfe8 16. Dc2 Tad8 17. Le2 Pc4 18. Lf4 Ld6 19. Lf3 De6 20. Lxd6 Txd6 21. a4 Pe5 22. Ld1 Ted8!
23. axb5 axb5 24. Pa3 Td2 25. Dc1 Db6 26. Pc2 Pe4 27. Pd4 Pd3 28. Db1
28. ... Pexf2 29. Da2 Dh6! 30. Dd5!? Pxh3+ 31. gxh3 De3+, White resigned.
Swedish chess officials offered Keres a new homeland. He accepted and returned to Tallinn to gather his wife, 2-year-old son and year-old daughter for the move. Time was crucial because the Red army was advancing in the east and was about to reoccupy Estonia, sealing their escape. In September 1944 the Keres family was waiting at a dock near the Estonian capital for the ship that would take them to Sweden. But Soviet troops arrived first. Keres was taken into custody. He managed to avoid the Gulag—even though his name was on a list of “enemies of Soviet power in Estonia”—and his career resumed as a Soviet player.
This was happening while Moscow dropped its bitter, decades-old opposition to Western, “bourgeois” chess. The Soviets joined FIDE and began to win every Olympiad and world championship event. The “Soviet era” began. But let’s change history in one minor way. What if the Swedish cutter had arrived in time? Writer Tim Harding concluded that Alekhine would have convinced Keres, once he was a free citizen of Sweden, to challenge him. After Keres won their match, FIDE would have recognized Keres
as the official world champion. He would have held the title until defeated by Mikhail Botvinnik in 1948-49, Harding wrote.
But I have a slightly different scenario: If Keres had made his escape in 1944, the Soviets would have branded him a renegade.
They would certainly not have recognized him as the world champion—and consequently couldn’t have recognized FIDE either. They would have boycotted FIDE competitions. The “Soviet era” would have been delayed. Perhaps it wouldn’t have started until
the Soviet leadership itself changed, in the late 1950s and ‘60s. But that means Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov and even Mikhail
Tal might never have become world champion. And all because a boat arrived late!
Bron: Chess Life Magazine
