Photographs and games

This year will be 20 years since the sudden death of Paul Keres. I am very glad that there were a few enthusiasts who found it their duty to preserve his chess creation in printed form, enabling thus for the new generation of chess-players to get acquainted with matches that were played long before they were born. It might be also interesting to follow the development of one chess-player through more than two thousand matches.
During forty years Paul Keres gathered many admirerers in Estonia and in the whole world. They rejoiced for his many victories and never left him during the bitter times when he lost. So the decision of the government of 1976 to print all his matches in one academic collection which could be used by the rest of the chess world was indeed very favourably received. Unfortunately this great enterprise was hindered and during the editing of the collection almost 500 original texts were lost.
But yet there were enthusiasts in Estonia who doing thorough research in the libraries and using other sources managed to trace back the texts of all matches. The work of many years has finally been finished and is waiting now for the opinion of chess-players and enthusiasts.
I would like to thank the people who prepared and published this edition. I hope that with the help of this book the beginners will get acquainted with the beauty of chess and also professionals might find something interesting and useful for themselves.
Maria Keres