Paul Keres
Paul Keres (January 71916 - June 51975) was an Estonian chess player, one of the stronger chess players of all times apart from the World chess champions. He was dubbed "The Crown Prince of Chess".Paul Keres was born in Narva, Estonia.
From 1937 to 1941 he studied mathematics at the University of Tartu.
In 1938 he won the AVRO tournament. It was supposed that the winner of this tournament would be the challenger for the World champion title, but the outbreak of the Second World War brought negotiations with the current champion, Alekhine, to an end. In the 1948 World Championship tournament, arranged to find a champion following Alekhine's death in 1946, Keres finished fourth, with 10.5 out of 20.
Keres won the strong USSR Chess Championship three times (1947, 1950 and 1951), and finished a runner-up in Candidates tournaments five times. But he never became World Champion.
He died in Helsinki, Finland in 1975.
The five kroons (5 krooni) Estonian banknote bears his portrait.
A statue honouring him can be found on Tõnismägi, in Tallinn