We send birthday wishes to GM Raymond Keene OBE.
Raymond Dennis Keene was born on Thursday, January 29th 1948 in Wandsworth, London to Dennis Arthur and Doris Anita Keene (née Leat). Dennis and Doris were married in 1943 in Camberwell. Doris was born on May 27th, 1921 in Lambeth and was a shorthand and invoice typist.
Dennis and Doris also had a daughter Jackie Keene who later married chess historian, RG Eales. Jackie is Emeritus Professor at The University of Kent in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Jackie played in the Glorney Cup.
Ray was educated at Dulwich College between 1959 and 1966 thereby becoming an Old Alleynian. In 1967 Ray went up to Trinity College, Cambridge to study Modern Languages specialising in German and graduating with an MA. Amongst their Alumni are five spies including Blunt, Burgess and Philby. During the gap between Dulwich College and Cambridge Ray (aged 18) wrote his first (and one of his best) book : Flank Openings :
Being published at the age of 19 this must be close to the earliest age an English player has had a chess book published that was not ghost written. (Leave a comment if you know differently!)
Following this legendary tome Ray collaborated with Leonard Barden and Bill Hartston on The King’s Indian Defence from BT Batsford Ltd:
and in 1972 we have
followed in 1973 by
All of which were favourably received helping Batsford to establish a strong reputation.
In July 1974 Ray married ex-ballerina (and now Dance Teacher) Annette Sara Goodman in Brighton, East Sussex. Annette became a director of World Memory Championships International Limited on January 17th 2008 and resigned on April 9th 2008. They have one son, Alexander Phillip Simon Keene, born in 1991. Godfather to Alexander is Scottish International, IM David Levy.
Annette is the sister of IM David Simon Charles Goodman who now resides in New York.
Also in 1974 George Bell & Sons published Ray’s most acclaimed work (and arguably his best) : Aron Nimzowitsch: A Reappraisal
Alexander is currently the Company Secretary of the aforementioned company, Julian (a retired teacher from Brighton) is another active director.
In 1985 Ray became the sixth British chess player to be awarded the OBE when it was awarded in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. The citation read “For Services to Chess”.
According to Companies House Ray has held a total of 30 directorships in various companies such as :
- Brain Plan 2020
- World Mind Mapping Championships
- World Speed Reading Championships
- Buzan International Technology
- Buzan World
- The World is My Oyster
- World Memory Championships
- Intelligent Resources and Services
- Outside in Pathways
- UK Primary Schools Memory Championships
- UK Schools Memory Championships
- The School Memory Championships
- The Schools Memory Championship
- Mental Literacy for All
- Festival of the Mind
- Festival of the Mind International
- The Brain Trust
- Impala (London)
- Tony Buzan International
- World Memory Championships International
- World Peace and Prosperity Foundation
- Zeticula
- Mind Masters Management
- Intellectual Leisure
- Brain Sports Olympiad
- Mind Sports Promotions
(Our particular favourite has to be the unpretentiously entitled “World Peace and Prosperity Foundation” although “The World is My Oyster” runs it a close second.)
Ray, Annette and Julian Simpole currently live in Clapham Common North Side, London, England.
From The Oxford Companion to Chess by David Hooper and Ken Whyld :
English player and author, British champion 1971, From 1966 he played in several Olympiads and his performance in two of them, Nice 1974 ( + 7=6-2) and Haifa 1976 (+4=6), gained him the title of International Grandmaster (1976). His best tournament win was at Dortmund 1980 (category 8), He studied the games and teaching of Staunton and Nimzowitsch and revealed with unusual insight the strategy of the former and the stratagems of the latter in two books: Staunton : the English World Champion (1975) and Nimzowitsch: a Reappraisal (1974). He also wrote Flank Openings (3rd edn, 1979); these openings are the ones which he prefers to play, which he knows best, and which suit his solid positional style.
From The Encyclopaedia of Chess by Anne Sunnucks :
International Master (1972), British Champion in 1971 and a regular member of the British team since 1966 playing on top board on a number of occasions.
Raymond Keene was born on 29th January 1948 in London and learned to play chess at the age of six. He began to play seriously when he was thirteen. While at Dulwich College from 1959 -1966 he played top bard for the school team which won the Sunday Times National Schools’ Chess Tournament in 1965 and 1966.
In 1964, he won the London and British Boys’ Under 18 Championship (ed : In fact, the title was shared with Brian Denman) and the following year, at the age of seventeen, he became the youngest player to win the Surrey Championship. While at Cambridge he graduated in German Literature (B.A. Honours), he played top board for the university.
During his chess career, he has beaten both Botvinnik and Gligoric, In 1967, he came 2nd in the World Junior Championship and in 1968 he won the prize for the best score on board 4 in the Lugano Olympiad.
A difficult player to beat, Keene played in four British Championships without losing a game and also went through the Lugano and Siegen Olympiads unbeaten in 33 games.
[pgn]
[Event “Olympiad-21 Preliminaries B”]
[Site “Nice”]
[Date “1974.06.07”]
[Round “1”]
[White “Keene, Raymond D”]
[Black “Fuller, Maxwell L”]
[Result “1-0”]
[ECO “A42”]
[Annotator “Keene,R”]
[PlyCount “71”]
[EventDate “1974.06.07”]
[EventType “team-tourn”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “FRA”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2000”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1999.11.16”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1999.11.16”]
[SourceQuality “1”]
[WhiteTeam “England”]
[BlackTeam “Australia”]
[WhiteTeamCountry “ENG”]
[BlackTeamCountry “AUS”]
{[%evp 0,71,19,27,85,57,47,9,7,7,65,34,42,34,13,11,25,-40,-29,41,25,62,39,33,
50,49,49,49,71,57,44,69,125,133,118,170,177,228,217,216,209,209,209,213,235,
240,261,246,262,269,269,-78,281,289,294,230,233,238,250,257,288,293,328,329,
329,303,1185,1235,1262,1016,1277,1356,1410,1002]} 1. Nf3 g6 2. c4 c5 3. e4 (3.
d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d5 6. e3 $1 $14) 3… Bg7 4. d4 d6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Be3
Bg4 (6… Qb6 7. Na4 Qa5+ 8. Bd2 Qc7 9. d5 Nd4 10. Nxd4 cxd4 $14) 7. dxc5 dxc5
8. Qxd8+ Rxd8 9. Bxc5 Bxc3+ 10. bxc3 Nf6 11. Nd4 $1 (11. Nd2 $2 Rxd2 $1) (11.
e5 $2 Nd7 $17) 11… Nxe4 12. Nxc6 bxc6 13. Bxa7 $1 (13. Bd4 $2 e5 $1 14. Bxe5
O-O 15. f3 Rfe8 $17) 13… Nxc3 (13… Bf5 14. f3 Nd6 15. a4 Ra8 16. Bb6 O-O
17. c5 Nc8 18. g4 Be6 19. a5 $16 {Smyslov,V-Botvinnik,M/Moscow Wch m-12 1957})
14. Bb6 Rd6 (14… Rd7 15. f3 Be6 16. a4 $1) 15. f3 Bc8 $2 (15… Bf5 16. a4
$16) 16. a4 Bf5 17. g4 Bc2 (17… Bd3 18. Ba5 Bxf1 19. Bxc3 Bg2 20. Rg1 $18) (
17… Bb1 18. Ba5 Rd1+ 19. Kf2 Rd2+ (19… Na2 20. Bg2 $1 $18) 20. Ke3) 18. Bc7
Rd1+ (18… Rd2 19. Be5 $1 $18) 19. Rxd1 Nxd1 (19… Bxd1 20. Be5) 20. Be2 Kd7
(20… Ne3 21. Kd2) (20… Nb2 21. Be5 $1) 21. Bg3 Ra8 22. Kd2 Rxa4 23. Kxc2
Ra2+ 24. Kb3 Rb2+ 25. Ka4 Rxe2 26. Rxd1+ $18 Ke6 27. Re1 Rxe1 28. Bxe1 Ke5 29.
Bc3+ Kf4 30. Kb4 Kxf3 31. Kc5 f5 32. gxf5 g5 33. Kxc6 h5 34. Kd5 h4 35. Be5 g4
36. Ke6 1-0
[/pgn]
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwXuST5VQvk[/embedyt]
At Oxford in 1973, Keene set up what he believes is an English speed record for simultaneous chess, scoring 100 wins, 5 draws and 1 loss in 4.5 hours.
From The Encyclopaedia of Chess by Harry Golombek :
“British Grandmaster, British Champion 1971, Keene was born in London and was both London Boy Champion and British Junior Champion in 1964 (ed : In fact, the title was shared with Brian Denman).
Educated at Dulwich College and Trinity College, Cambridge, he soon became recognised, along with Hartston, as one of the two leading younger players in England. His style of play was different from that of his rival, being more complicated and less direct; but, like Hartston, he became a most formidable opening theorist with a vast knowledge of opening theory.
His first Olympiad was at Havana 1966 where he was the youngest member of the side and scored 65% on board six. In 1968 at Lugano he obtained 76.5% on board four and in 1970 at Siegen, playing on board two in the preliminaries and board one in the finals he score 68.8%.
The year 1971 saw a double achievement, for in that year he won the British Championship at Blackpool and also secured the title of International Master.
Playing on top board in the 1972 Olympiad at Skopje, he scored 11.5 out of 20.
In 1974 he came 6th in a very strong Hastings tournament and then won first prize in the Capablanca Memorial Masters in Cuba. At the Nice Olympiad he scored 66.66% on 2nd board, attaining the first leg of the grandmaster norm. At Mannheim 1975 he was 3rd in the German Open championship and in that year he also came 2nd at Alicante. In 1976 he was 2nd at the Aarhus tournament in Denmark. He finished a most successful year in international chess by fulfilling the second grandmaster norm on 2nd board in the Haifa Olympiad, thereby becoming England’s second international grandmaster (after Tony Miles). (Harry Golombek)”
Ray was Southern Counties (SCCU) champion for the 1966-67 season.
Here is his extensive Wikipedia article
Noted historian Olimpu G Urcan writes on Alekhine versus Keene
and Edward Winter writes extensively about Ray’s journalistic activities
and finally, Keenipedia. A web site created by his many admirers…
[pgn]
[Event “Hastings 1975/76”]
[Site “Hastings ENG”]
[Date “1976.01.12”]
[EventDate “?”]
[Round “13”]
[Result “1-0”]
[White “Raymond Denis Keene”]
[Black “Anthony John Miles”]
[ECO “D42”]
[WhiteElo “”]
[BlackElo “”]
[PlyCount “51”]
[Annotator “Ray Keene”]
1. Nf3 { Notes by Raymond Keene. } Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. Nc3 Nc6
4. e3 e6 5. d4 d5 6. cxd5 Nxd5 7. Bd3 cxd4 {Perhaps 7…Be7 is
more accurate, maintaining the central tension.} 8. exd4 Be7
9. O-O O-O {One of the classical isolated queen’s pawn
positions, in which White’s extra space and attacking chances
compensate for the structural weakness.} 10. Re1 Nf6 {A solid
alternative is 10…Bf6 11 Be4 etc.} 11. Bg5 {!? Fashionable
was 11 a3, but the text is not bad. All White’s pieces are
coming out at great speed while Black still has problems
completing his queenside development.} 11…Nb4 {The immediate
11…b6 deserves attention. Black’s plan to dominate the
blockade square d5 instantly is possibly too straightforward.}
12. Bb1 b6 {12…Bd7 is a more cautious treatment, planning a
later development with …Bc6.} 13. Ne5 Bb7 {It might look as
if Black is over the worst but now a vicious attack appears
almost out of nowhere.} 14. Re3 {!! A difficult and bold
move. When I played it I already had to be sure that my
kingside attacking chances would be sufficient compensation
for my lack of queenside development and the clumsy position
of my rook on the third rank. Strangely, a similar rook
manoeuvre occurred in a game Filip – Pogats, played 14 years
previously, but neither Miles nor I had any notion of this
until I discovered the theoretical background after our
game. Incidentally, the Filip game ended in a draw.} 14…g6
{To prevent 15 Bxf6 Bxf6 16 Bxh7+ Kxh7 17 Qh5+ and 18 Rh3.}
15. Rg3 {! It looks odd to aim the rook against a granite wall
(g6) but the granite has faulty foundations. In contrast, the
more natural 15 Rh3 achieves nothing.} 15…Rc8 {?! At the
time the course I feared most was 15…Nc6! 16 Bh6 Qxd4! when
Black breaks White’s attack by sacrificing the exchange. In
view of the lack of weaknesses in Black’s position it would
then be a distinctly uphill struggle for White to win. After
the move played the solution became susceptible to precise
tactical analysis.} 16. Bh6 Re8 17. a3 Nc6 {17…Nbd5 does not
alter things significantly.} 18. Nxg6 {!} hxg6 19. Bxg6 {Apart
from capturing the bishop Black has two other defences: a)
19…Bf8 20 Bc2+ Kh8 21 Bxf8 Rxf8 22 Qd2 Ng8 23 Rh3+ Kg7 24
Rh7+ (Fritz gives 24 Qf4) 24…Kf6 25 d5+-; b) 19…Bd6 20
Bxf7+ Kxf7 21 Rg7+ Kf8 22 Qf3+-. In this position Black is
quite helpless, in spite of his extra material.} 19…fxg6
20. Qb1 {! An original square for the queen in a mating
combination, but neither 20 Qd3 Ne5 nor 20 Qc2 Ne5! 21 dxe5
Ne4 (exploiting the pin on the c-file) would be good enough
for White.} 20…Ne5 21. dxe5 Ne4 {Without the c-file pin this
is sheer desperation.} 22. Nxe4 Kh7 23. Nf6+ Bxf6 24. Qxg6+
Kh8 25. Bg7+ Bxg7 26. Qxg7# 1-0
[/pgn]
