Raymond Keene
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Raymond Dennis Keene (born 29 January 1948) is an influential figure in the chess world off the board, bringing many notable chess events to London. He is also the author of a significant number of chess books, including a well respected treatise on Nimzowitsch titled Aron Nimzowitsch: A Reappraisal, and a chess book claimed to have been authored over a weekend!
[edit] Career
After education at Dulwich College and Trinity College, Cambridge (where he studied modern languages), Keene rose to prominence in the chess scene in the early seventies. He won the British Chess Championship at Blackpool in 1971. At that time the UK had no Grandmaster chess players, and its best known player was the highly respected Jonathan Penrose (who famously beat Mikhail Tal in 1960). Keene was one of the first group of British players to achieve the necessary norms to become a Grandmaster - being pipped to the post by Tony Miles (Anthony John Miles - deceased 2001) to the title of first British Grandmaster in 1976.
Keene's playing style tended toward the strategically original and positional. Favouring hypermodern openings such as the Modern Defence, he introduced a few interesting novelties. His style of play was strongly influenced by Nimzowitsch, and thus his adoption of Indian-type openings and positions (especially the Nimzo-Indian defence and the King's Indian Defence). As a player, Keene had some success in Europe and on the local tournament circuit.
However, it is not as a player Keene is best known, but as a chess activist (possibly politician is a more accurate reflection). His contributions to the organisational side of chess contrast with the mire of politicking and back-biting that overshadowed his successes. His on-going "war" with individuals within the English Chess Federation and past friends gain much press attention.
Keene is responsible for many notable chess events:
- He was Viktor Korchnoi's second during his World Chess Championship match against Anatoly Karpov in Manila 1978 - the match that brought hypnotism, mirrored glasses and yogurt as headline items in the spy-vs-spy encounter very thematic of the cold war period.
- He brought Viktor Korchnoi and Garry Kasparov together for the famous 1983 Candidates semi-final match in London. Kasparov had defaulted the original match, which had been scheduled for Los Angeles. This allowed Kasparov to go on and win the World Championship in 1985.
- He arranged for the first half of the 1986 World Championship return match between Kasparov and Karpov to be played in London.
- After years in the wilderness outside of FIDE, Keene was the instrumental force behind 'Brain Games', which organised the Kasparov vs Vladimir Kramnik match which resulted in the former losing his title. His involvement with Brain Games has attracted some controversy, with alleged financial irregularities highlighted repeatedly in Private Eye.
Keene remains the chess correspondent of The Times newspaper, has often written for The Spectator magazine also, and will probably remain influential in the chess world for years to come. He is at times criticised for distorting the facts, such as incorrectly calling a Woman International Master a Grandmaster in June 2006 [1].
He is also known as "The Penguin", because of his physical resemblance to the bird, and as a comparison to Batman's nemesis - amusingly, one of his publishers is Penguin Books.
Keene often sports a bow tie at public events.
Keene occasionally appears on television, most notably as main presenter of Duels Of The Mind, a series which aired on the UK ITV network. In the series Keene, along with South African author and civil rights campaigner Donald Woods, discussed and analysed what were, in his opinion, the twelve best games of chess.
In addition to his television appearances, Keene is also credited in the feature film 'The Zombie Diaries' as a voice over artist. Keene and his co-author, Julian Simpole (Petrosian V The Elite) both donated their voices for the opening credit sequence to the 2006 horror film, playing a journalist and politician respectively.
Raymond Keene is active member of the chessgames.com chess database and community, he has also written "around 120 books on chess" (quote from www.chessbase.com[2]).
Keene considers his best games to be Keene-Miles, 1975[3]; King-Keene, 1982[4]; Keene-Penrose, 1970[5]; Arnason-Keene, 1981[6]; Keene-Ligterink, 1981[7]; Farago-Keene, 1981[8]; Keene-Mestel, 1981[9]; Kunstowicz-Keene, 1973; Keene-Kovacevic, 1973[10]; Keene-Robatsch, 1971[11]; Keene-Basman, 1967[12]; and Keene-Timman, 1973[13].
In 1974 Keene married Annette, the sister of International Master David Goodman. They have one son, Alexander.
[edit] Books
Maneuvers in Moscow: Karpov-Kasparov II (Macmillan Chess Library) by Raymond Keene, David S. Goodman (Paperback - January 1986) ISBN 0-02-028720-8
The Centenary Match Kasparov-Karpov III by Raymond Keene, David Goodman (Paperback - December 1986) ISBN 0-02-028700-3
Man Versus Machine: Kasparov Versus Deep Blue by David Goodman, Raymond Keene (Paperback - May 1997) ISBN 1-888281-06-5
Showdown in Seville Kasparov-Karpov IV by Raymond Keene, David Goodman (Paperback - October 2003) ISBN 1-84382-121-4
[edit] External links
- FIDE rating card for Raymond Keene
- Raymond Keene at ChessGames.com
