End of an era

[Roger Lancaster]

Thomas Farriner saw an end to that : he chose a fiery demise to many plagiarists but Robert Hubert got the blame, he was hanged and then torn apart by enraged members of the EC Forum.

LOL, initially misread that as "Robert Hubner" and was momentarily concerned for the GM's welfare.

[Alex Holowczak]

or Mike Gatting's technique for making a relatively trivial catch look good for the cameras.

How dare you!? I was watching it live, which I'm pretty sure you weren't, and it was a brilliant catch.

I have seen the video though, which has been shown from time-to-time whenever there's about to be an Ashes series, and it's available on YouTube. The actual catch was indeed very good, but only after it took him an age to get anywhere near the ball...

[O.G. Urcan]

Concerning Raymond Keene's claim to have written The Spectator's chess column for "42 years without missing a week", these were the columnists during a six-week run in 1986:

11 October: David Spanier
18 October: Raymond Keene
25 October: David Spanier
1 November: David Levy
8 November: Raymond Keene
15 November: David Spanier.

More on Raymond Keene's claim never to have missed a week as the Spectator's chess columnist. In 1985 he was replaced by the following:

16 February: Andrew Whiteley
30 March: Harry Golombek
18 May: David Spanier
8 June: David Goodman
22 June: David Spanier
13 July: David Goodman
24 August: David Spanier
23 November: David Spanier
30 November: Paul Lamford.

[Matt Mackenzie]

New Statesman

Followed in the mid 70s by Tony Miles, then the column fell into abeyance for a few years until resurrected by George Botterill in the mid 80s.

Jim Plaskett and Byron Jacobs followed him, but by the end (late 90s?) it was appearing less and less frequently in any case.

AFAIK nothing since then.

[Richard Bates]

or Mike Gatting's technique for making a relatively trivial catch look good for the cameras.

How dare you!? I was watching it live, which I'm pretty sure you weren't, and it was a brilliant catch.

I have seen the video though, which has been shown from time-to-time whenever there's about to be an Ashes series, and it's available on YouTube. The actual catch was indeed very good, but only after it took him an age to get anywhere near the ball...

Ah, I assumed you were referring to the short leg catch, but actually it was the Lillee one at mid-on! To be fair neither are that impressive if you imagine the cricket ball as a pie

[Stewart Reuben]

Luke McShane first had a weekly chess column at a very, very young age. Indeed he may well have been thr youngest-ever regular columnist. It was in, I think, the Sunday Mail.
Once at Hastings, the sub-editor rang urgently to make contact with Luke for him to give the blessing for the column. She said, 'He is very particular about getting everything correct.' Of course it wa during the round so he could not be disturbed and they had their deadline. I rather think I listened to the piece and gave it my blessing.

[Richard Bates]

Luke McShane first had a weekly chess column at a very, very young age. Indeed he may well have been thr youngest-ever regular columnist. It was in, I think, the Sunday Mail.
Once at Hastings, the sub-editor rang urgently to make contact with Luke for him to give the blessing for the column. She said, 'He is very particular about getting everything correct.' Of course it wa during the round so he could not be disturbed and they had their deadline. I rather think I listened to the piece and gave it my blessing.

Thought it was the Express, could be wrong.

[Stewart Reuben]

Richard.
You are correct, it was the Express on Sunday in which Luke had his chess column. Probably aged 15. The old YearBooks definitely have their uses.

[John Upham]

For those who enjoy these things there is coverage of the "letting go" by The Spectator in #1507, page 9 of Private Eye

Apparently

“keeping on plagiarising even after he’d been politely asked not to”.

[Angus French]

Seen on Twitter:

Today I announce my retirement from writing The Times chess column.

[Jonathan Rogers]

Hurrah! Do we know who will take it on, assuming it continues?

[Tim Harding]

Seen on Twitter:

Today I announce my retirement from writing The Times chess column.

Ray says he is standing down at the end of November "after 34 years of reporting chess here".
This month he is giving a series of classic games and personal favourites. Today it is one of the McDonnell-De la Bourdonnais games from 1834 and the winning move position is from Philidor.

No word on a successor.

Did he fall or was he pushed?
Likewise with the transition to David Howell last year on the Sunday Times.

[JustinHorton]

Did he fall or was he pushed?

Well who knows, and if it were the latter then I doubt anybody would actually say so, but given that the column essentially runs on automatic, there would be no particular reason for Ray to discontinue it out of choice.

[Ian Thompson]

This month he is giving a series of classic games and personal favourites. Today it is one of the McDonnell-De la Bourdonnais games from 1834

But are the annotations original? If not, where have they been copied from? I suspect "panthalassic tsunami of pawns" is not a commonly used expression in game annotations.

[Tim Harding]

This month he is giving a series of classic games and personal favourites. Today it is one of the McDonnell-De la Bourdonnais games from 1834

But are the annotations original? If not, where have they been copied from? I suspect "panthalassic tsunami of pawns" is not a commonly used expression in game annotations.

Maybe this month's games and puzzles will all turn out to be ones he has used before. Isn't that what his introduction implies?