Raymond Keene
Raymond Dennis Keene | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 29, 1948 England |
| Occupation(s) | Chess grandmaster, FIDE International Arbiter, chess promoter, journalist, writer |
| Known for | British Chess Champion (1971), second English Grandmaster (1976), chess correspondent for The Times (1985–2019) |
Raymond Dennis Keene (born 29 January 1948) is a distinguished English chess Grandmaster, FIDE International Arbiter, chess promoter, journalist, and writer. He claimed victory at the British Chess Championship in 1971 and became the first English competitor to achieve a Grandmaster norm in 1974. In 1976, he earned the Grandmaster title as England’s second recipient after Tony Miles, and was the second British player to defeat a reigning World Chess Champion. Keene represented England in eight Chess Olympiad tournaments.
After retiring from active competition in 1986 at the age of thirty-eight, Keene dedicated himself to chess administration, journalism, and writing. He played a key role in organising the World Chess Championship matches of 1986, 1993, and 2000, as well as the Mind Sports Olympiads from 1997 to 1999, all hosted in London. From 1985 until 2019, he served as the chess correspondent for The Times and authored more than two hundred publications on chess and related mind sports. In recognition of his contributions to chess, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1985.
Chess career
Keene shared first place in both the London and British Under-18 Championships in 1964 and secured second place at the 1967 World Junior Chess Championship. He studied at Dulwich College and later earned an MA in modern languages from Trinity College, Cambridge, during which time he wrote his debut chess book. After winning the British Championship in 1971, he was awarded the International Master title in 1972—the first English player to do so since Jonathan Penrose.
In 1974, Keene married Annette Goodman, sister of International Master David S. Goodman; the couple has one son. He became Britain’s second Grandmaster in 1976 soon after Tony Miles; both received financial rewards for this milestone. Alongside contemporaries such as Michael Stean and John Nunn, they spearheaded a resurgence of English chess on the international stage.
Keene represented England internationally for almost twenty years, beginning with the 1966 Chess Olympiad at age eighteen and competing consecutively through to 1980. His individual performances earned him bronze medals at Lugano (1968) and Haifa (1976), with undefeated results at Lugano, Siegen (1970), and Haifa. His later Olympiad results showed a decline.
Additionally, he participated four times each in the Students' Olympiad and European Team Championships between 1973 and 1983, earning team bronze and individual gold medals at Skara (1980).
His tournament victories include Hastings Challengers (1966), Slater Challenge Southend (1968), Johannesburg (1973), Capablanca Memorial Master Group (1974), Alicante (1977), Sydney (1979), Dortmund (1980), Barcelona (1980), Lloyds Bank Masters (1981), Adelaide (1983), and La Valletta (1985).
Playing style
Keene’s approach to play was strategically innovative and positional, heavily influenced by Aron Nimzowitsch and Richard Réti. He preferred hypermodern openings such as the Modern Defence, Nimzo-Indian Defence, and King's Indian Defence.
Organiser
As a leading figure in chess event management, Keene founded the annual Staunton memorial tournaments held in London—important fixtures attracting substantial sponsorship for masters. He facilitated major matches including the 1983 Candidates' semi-final clashes between Victor Korchnoi and Garry Kasparov, as well as between Vasily Smyslov and Zoltán Ribli.
In 1984, Keene successfully organised on short notice the USSR versus Rest of the World match in London, an effort lauded by John Nunn as "a magnificent organisational achievement." He also arranged the first half of the World Chess Championship 1986 Kasparov-Karpov rematch hosted in London; however, this event resulted in financial losses for the British Chess Federation (BCF), leading to Keene’s unexplained resignation from the BCF.
Keene managed the 1993 PCA World Championship match between Kasparov and Nigel Short in London, acting as an official commentator alongside Grandmasters Jonathan Speelman and Daniel King. He played a pivotal role with 'Brain Games,' which organised the Classical World Chess Championship 2000 match between Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik. After Brain Games collapsed financially, Keene controversially retained possession of the championship trophy due to unpaid fees; Kramnik did not receive it until 2008.
Columnist
Keene contributed as a chess columnist for The Spectator from March 1977 until September 2019, when Luke McShane took over the role. Following Harry Golombek, he served as the chess correspondent for The Times between 1985 and November 2019, after which David Howell succeeded him. Additionally, Keene wrote for the Sunday Times from December 1996 until August 2017, with Howell again stepping into his position.
Television personality
Keene appeared on television to cover world chess championships in the years 1981, 1985, 1986, 1990, 1993, and 1995, broadcasting on BBC 2, Channel 4, and Thames TV. In the UK ITV series Duels of the Mind, he engaged in discussions with South African author Donald Woods about what Keene regarded as the twelve greatest chess games ever played.
Magazine editor
Between 1978 and 1982, Keene was the editor of Modern Chess Theory, a publication focused on opening theory that featured articles from Soviet world champions such as Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov, and Mikhail Tal.
Author
Having written over 200 books on chess and related mind games, Keene also acted as Chess Advisor to Batsford. His early publications, including Howard Staunton (1975), concentrated on players whose styles resembled his own. The book Aron Nimzowitsch: a Reappraisal (1974) received positive acclaim and was translated into Russian in 1986; an English edition using algebraic notation appeared in 1999. In collaboration with Nathan Divinsky in 1989, he co-authored Warriors of the Mind, which endeavored to rank the top sixty-four chess players throughout history; although its statistical methodology met with mixed reactions, the included biographies and game analyses offered valuable perspectives.
Working for Korchnoi
In 1978, Keene supported Viktor Korchnoi during the World Chess Championship match against Karpov, working alongside Michael Stean and Jacob Murey.
Working for Karpov
In preparation for the 1981 World Chess Championship match between Karpov and Korchnoi, Keene assisted Anatoly Karpov in the USSR.
Allegations of plagiarism
Keene has been accused multiple times of plagiarism. In 1993, John Donaldson accused him of extensive copying in The Complete Book of Gambits (Batsford, 1992), highlighting that nearly all wording and variations pertaining to Lisitsin's Gambit were directly reproduced.
In 2013, chess historian Edward Winter brought attention to ongoing plagiarism concerns within chess literature, referencing Justin Horton's discovery that Keene had appropriated content from Kasparov’s My Great Predecessors in his writings for The Spectator. The magazine Private Eye characterized these episodes as involving "substantial amounts of text lifted from chess books," primarily Kasparov’s works but also others'.
One prominent example involved Keene’s annotations of a Kasparov-Karpov game published both in The Times (2011) and later in The Spectator (2013). Winter described these as "eye-popping" cases documented in an actively maintained "plagiarism index" on the Streatham and Brixton Chess Blog.
Tony Miles
In 1985, Keene received £1,178 from the British Chess Federation for acting as Tony Miles' second at the Interzonal tournament in Tunis; however, he had not actually fulfilled this role but accepted the payment and shared it with Miles. Miles never cashed the cheque and reported the incident to the BCF in 1987. Two months after this disclosure, Keene stepped down from his positions as BCF Publicity Director and FIDE delegate. He stated his resignation was due to other reasons and expressed dissatisfaction with how he was treated after organising numerous events between 1983 and 1987.
Brain Games Network
In 2000, David Levy, Keene's former brother-in-law, accused him of misleading the directors of Mind Sports Olympiad Ltd (MSO) by founding a competing enterprise, Brain Games Network plc (BGN), using £50,000 of MSO's funds without their consent. Levy claimed that Keene altered the explanations surrounding the transaction and that the shares were held exclusively by Keene and a partner, excluding MSO and its board members. Levy highlighted that investors, who had contributed £1.5 million partly based on trust in both Keene and Levy, were deeply upset by Keene’s conduct.
Although no misconduct was formally established, Keene quickly reimbursed the £50,000 to MSO, characterizing it as a personal loan. BGN went on to organise that year's world championship match. Around this period, Private Eye nicknamed Keene "The Penguin," a moniker originating from 1966.
Levy further criticized Keene for selling three companies with minimal value to BGN for £220,000, despite their combined capital and reserves amounting to only £2,300. Moreover, BGN purchased a website and two domain names through a two-step transaction involving Giloberg Finance Limited—controlled by Keene’s associate Alan Lubin—which yielded an immediate profit close to £230,000 for Giloberg, prompting concerns about the inflated price paid.
BGN eventually failed amid controversy; shareholders objected to at least £675,000 in fees paid to directors despite the company being insolvent. Investors were also displeased that Keene and Lubin acquired 88% of BGN at a nominal cost while the remaining 12% was sold for approximately £3 million.
During the 2000 Braingames World Championship, Keene was accused of authoritarian behavior after journalist John Henderson was forcibly removed from the press area with assistance from security personnel.
Korchnoi
Viktor Korchnoi claimed that during the 1978 World Championship, Keene violated their contract by authoring a book about the match that was published just three days after its conclusion. The agreement Keene signed explicitly forbade him from writing or aiding in any book during the event. Korchnoi stated: "Mr Keene betrayed me. He broke our contract. It was evident that while Mr Keene was producing one book after another, Mr Stean was doing his work on his behalf."
Michael Stean’s mother, who had typed up Keene’s contract, confirmed he signed it despite already negotiating with publisher Batsford regarding the book. She described this as "a calculated and intentional plan to mislead" and noted suspicions about Keene’s behavior during the match, particularly his frequent presence in the Press Office sending telex messages despite denying he was engaged in writing.