Keres

Paul Keres was born in Estonia in 1916 and reached the international elite before the Second World War. In 1938 he tied Reuben Fine for first at AVRO, a tournament named for the Dutch broadcaster that organized it. The event brought together eight of the world's strongest players. Keres placed ahead under the tiebreak rule, a secondary method used to separate equal scores, and strengthened his standing as a title contender.

After the war he played in the 1948 tournament that decided the world championship. In all, he was considered a world title candidate on seven occasions. Here candidate means a player who has reached the final stages of the process used to select a future challenger. Keres repeatedly came close but never earned a match for the World Chess Championship. This record inspired the nickname "Crown Prince of Chess."

He was also a three-time Soviet champion and played on winning teams in several Chess Olympiads, the leading international team competition. His annotated game collections became classics because they explained not only the moves, but also the decisions and mistakes that shaped each struggle.