Paul Keres (1916-1975) was one of the greatest players never to become world champion. It was not through want of trying. For a full quarter of a century, starting from his victory at Avro 1938, one of the all-time premier tournaments in chess history, right up to Curaçao 1962, where he missed first place and a world title challenge by a hair’s breadth, Keres was a leading contender. Keres became a national hero for Estonians, who believed that Soviet officials had coerced him into playing badly against the favoured Russian, Mikhail Botvinnik, in the 1948 world championship tournament. He was...