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Hi woldsmandriffield,

I'm not sure the claim is that Korchnoi was stronger than Keres.

Two great players with spectacular C.V's. Players of this stature are neither stronger or weaker than each other, they are on the same plateau along with a dozen or so other great players the game has produced.

The debate is who deserves to be called the uncrowned World Champion. For that head to head results and non World Championship games and qualifiers need to be left out.

Korchnoi battled his way into two W.C. title matches something Keres never quite achieved. (1974 could be used here but it was not an official World Title match - see below.)

Another claim is that Keres came 2nd in 5 candidates tournaments.

Korchnoi played in 6 candidate finals, (here we now count 1974) he lost 3 (to Spassky, Karpov and Kasparov) he won the other 3. If he had lost all 6 he would have bettered Kere's five 2nd places.

Keres holding the record for beating 9 world champions is an impressive statistic but should it be taken in consideration when talking about qualifying for or playing in World Finals?

But if we do include it.

Korchnoi has also beaten 9 world champions. (he never got to play Alekhine, Capablanca or Euwe - Keres never played Kasparov or Carlsen and never beat Karpov) Korchnoi has, at one time or other beaten the same other six as Keres.

Petrosian, Spassky, Karpov, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal and Fischer,

BTW, if some think the Paul Keres Bio is too short then look at Viktor Korchnoi

(Edited)

Yes if Caruana becomes World Champion then that is another scalp for Korchnoi. (same if Gelfand had won it.)

Meanwhile we have another scalp for Keres beating world chess champions.

Keres vs Menchik, 1939

Vera was Women's world champ at the time.

You do realise that if Korchnoi had beaten Karpov in 1978 we would not be having this discussion and because Keres has beaten Korchnoi in the past the Keres head count would be 10. (or 11 if you count Vera).

Vera was Women's world champ at the time>

Yes indeed fabelhaft, so it looks Korchnoi is well ahead in the who has beat the most World Champions stakes.

But...

...in 2006 Korchnoi won the senior World Championship. He finally got his crown. (therefore cannot be the strongest player not to be world champion, he has disqualified himself.)

Korchnoi's bogeyman who stopped him from winning the actual World Championship, Anatoly Karpov, was too young (55) to enter!

The discussion appears to be about �closest� to becoming world champion. Hence details about players tying matches who were thus �close� to succeeding. Or comparisons between how far and how often players progressed in elimination tournaments, such as the candidates.

With respect to the latter, the candidates, PK�s early career predated FIDE control of the world championship. There were simply fewer candidates events for him to qualify from in comparison with VK. There is also the fact that the Second World War precluded a match with Alekhine, which PK was �qualified� to play.

Keres� attempts to flee to Sweden came at the last minute. He had agreed to wait with others for a boat to arrive at the coast near Haapsalu. The group of other people waiting for the day that never came included such prominent figures as the writer Friedebert Tuglas and members of the pre-war government. But, as Maria Keres recalls:

"During one of my meetings with GM Lev Polugayevsky (1934-1995) in the early 90s, he told me the following story about Keres.

"It is true that the behaviour of Keres during the war allowed him to be condemned to death or deportation according to our laws. One of the first to help him was Botvinnik, who interceded at the highest levels of state with Molotov (a signatory of the German-Soviet pact).

A commission met to decide Keres' fate and opinions were very divided. One of the participants asked this question:

'How many Keres do we have in the USSR?'

After a deathly silence, someone dared to make this reply:

'Unfortunately only one, comrade!'

Chess probably saved Keres' life, but there was definitely a price to pay for it."

Vyacheslav Molotov -- best known for the eponymous <Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact>, <Molotov Cocktails>, and <Molotov Bread Baskets>:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyach...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molot...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molot...

https://ibb.co/N78gP6q

https://ibb.co/D4tVFKw