English Chess Forum

Happy Birthday GM Raymond Keene OBE (29-i-1948)

New material from the early years.

A listing of RDKs many and varied directorships which some will find amusing.

(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.)

John Upham wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 29, 2021 11:06 am

A listing of RDKs many and varied directorships which some will find amusing.

http://britishchessnews.com/2021/01/29/happy-birthday-ray-keene-obe-29-i-1948/ wrote:According to Companies House Ray has held a total of 30 directorships in various companies such as :

I don't think that's quite right. He's been Secretary of some companies either instead of, or as well as, being a Director. So it's fewer than 30 different companies and fewer than 30 directorships.

How many of those companies were created and dissolved without every trading and how many were dissolved through insolvency or other forms of failure?

Ian Thompson wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 29, 2021 12:15 pm

John Upham wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 29, 2021 11:06 am

A listing of RDKs many and varied directorships which some will find amusing.

http://britishchessnews.com/2021/01/29/happy-birthday-ray-keene-obe-29-i-1948/ wrote:According to Companies House Ray has held a total of 30 directorships in various companies such as :

I don't think that's quite right. He's been Secretary of some companies either instead of, or as well as, being a Director. So it's fewer than 30 different companies and fewer than 30 directorships.

How many of those companies were created and dissolved without every trading and how many were dissolved through insolvency or other forms of failure?

I will allow you to investigate that in your own forensic style...

Please report back!

Canterbury Christ Church University where Jackie Keene is Emeritus Professor is a separate academic institution to the University of Kent at Canterbury. Richard Eales was on the staff at the latter, although if I recall correctly he declined invitations to play for its chess team during my time there.

J T Melsom wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 29, 2021 12:57 pm

Richard Eales was on the staff at the latter, although if I recall correctly he declined invitations to play for its chess team during my time there.

i played him in a National Club Plate final in 1984. He was playing for a local Kent team. Would it have been Canterbury or perhaps Bridge?

I wasn't at university in 1984. I played my first Bucks league fixture that year. Richard Eales certainly played for Canterbury later in the decade.

John, another good review.
RDKs early books and collaborates better than numerous others.
Charges for simuls were high even with our Battersea/Clapham Common connections.
Happy 73 for decades of entertainment.

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.

I could have sworn I once wrote something about this somewhat questionable claim, but I am damned if I can find it now.

In 1974 on the exact same occasion (final day of the IAPS prep school championships at the Dragon School, Oxford) against very similar opposition I scored 100 wins and six draws. The opponents included Julian Hodgson and William Watson, and I knew about Ray's result so in the late stages was consciously trying to improve on it. Ray's single defeat was to Nicholas Benjamin.

There was no talk of a 'speed record' and I don't know the time taken, although the idea seems rather absurd in a simul where the opposition could vary enormously from strong club players to junior novices.

At the Dragon School this included both groups, as the exhibition started with 40 juniors from the bottom section who were replaced individually with the strongest opponents joining at the end. As the chairs were quite tight against the wall, this often meant that the process involved both parties scrambling under desks.

We arranged many simuls against top grandmastets for England juniors in the 1970s and 1980s,
where the criteria for success on either side was always the score, not the time taken. From the English perspective, the ultimate target was a team even or plus score.

This was narrowly missed with minus one against Tigran Petrosian in 1978 (the 'Armenian peasant' occasion for Nigel Short) and 50 per cent against Viktor Kupreychik in 1982, and finally achieved in 1984 when the England juniors defeated a alightly inebriated Nikolai Krogius at the end of the USSR v World match.

Good report about the 1984 match https://www.olimpbase.org/1984g/1984in.html - I had forgotten that Krogius was there as captain.
"Most chess fans in Britain would not have known details of the match until they saw Leonard Barden's Guardian column on June 23rd, the day after the Soviet team arrived in London." Time and again.
Mr Barden's comment about speed is spot on - sounds like a record invented so someone could claim it - unlikely though this may sound.

Without the glasses, Ray in his younger years looks spookily like someone I knew 10 years ago. Spitting image in fact. Must be the hair style.

Leonard Barden wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 30, 2021 1:05 pm

In 1974 on the exact same occasion (final day of the IAPS prep school championships at the Dragon School, Oxford) against very similar opposition I scored 100 wins and six draws. The opponents included Julian Hodgson and William Watson, and I knew about Ray's result so in the late stages was consciously trying to improve on it. Ray's single defeat was to Nicholas Benjamin.

There was no talk of a 'speed record' and I don't know the time taken, although the idea seems rather absurd in a simul where the opposition could vary enormously from strong club players to junior novices.

At the Dragon School this included both groups, as the exhibition started with 40 juniors from the bottom section who were replaced individually with the strongest opponents joining at the end. As the chairs were quite tight against the wall, this often meant that the process involved both parties scrambling under desks.

....

Gosh, that takes me back (I made a draw and a loss to Leonard in those simuls in the 1980s). I remember that when Leonard lost or drew he would announce the result and the name of his successful opponent to the whole room.

A very belated happy birthday to young Raymond Keene.
I have a number of his The Times Winning Moves books which I thought were most excellent.
I also enjoyed reading his chess articles and his chess games published in The Times newspaper.

Simon Rogers wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 02, 2021 8:46 pm

his chess articles

Or not, as the case may be

In that picture it looks like Raymond is applying to be James Bond, very debonair.