English Chess Forum

As you may or may not be aware, George Chan has made a programme on chess entitled 'Timeshift: How To Win At Chess'. This is George's description of the show:

"The programme is aimed at people who know the rules of chess (not absolute beginners), but haven't really played much and could benefit from simple advice and tips. These are provided by:

Ray Keene, Dan King, Harriet Hunt, David Howell, while other chess info / stories / anecdotes are provided by: Sheila Dines, Dominic Lawson, Martin Amis, Victor Matthias, various speed chess players, Tim Woolgar and Stephen Moss."

It isn't definitive yet, but it's scheduled to be shown on BBC4 on December 2nd, at 9.00pm. I'll post again when it's either confirmed for this date, or if the schedule changes.

Last time Ray Keene played chess pawns could only move one square forward! I find it fascinating that he is so associated with chess yet does not play anymore and does not even have an ECF grade. His FIDE grade of 2455 is potentially out of date me thinks, and no doubt I could beat him. He's always on TV when it comes to chess so it would be nice getting someone currently active on TV and young to appeal to the youth who is strong (Simon Williams, Matthew Turner come to mind!)

Anyhow, great to see chess looking like it is going to get some form of coverage on the box. last time I saw it was watching Piers Brosnon in the remake of the Thomas Crown Affair.

Gavin Strachan wrote:... and no doubt I could beat him ....

I think not Gavin - although I imagine you're right about his FIDE rating likely to be a bit optimistic were he to come out of retirement.

Although RDK doesn't play rated games anymore (last official chess was in the mid-80s if memory serves) he remains a pretty active simul giver. Not in the Simon Williams class for sure but still better than you or I.

That said, while Raymondo may have been a GM at chess he's a Super GM 2900 elo equivalent World Champion at getting his fizzog on the goggle box. I reckon it's his greatest talent (and not one to be dismissed lightly).


There were a few threads hereabouts a few months back campaigning for chess on TV - well now we've got it. Let's see how it turns out.


If i were going through the names listed and sifting a few out I'd take Dominic Lawson and Tim Woolgar off the list before I got to RDK.


PS:
I saw Sheila Dines having a camera pointed at her in Trafalgar Square after her game with the giant chess set (she was on just before my friend Martin). I wonder if it was for this prog?

Finally a TV prog dedicated to chess!

This is great news. I'll keep my fingers crossed until December.

The more people that watch this, the greater the argument for chess having a regular programme.

Id make the favourite V him in a blitz 5 series.

Ben

Ben Purton wrote:Id make the favourite V him in a blitz 5 series.

Ben

Ben Edgell?

If Someone put me in a room with Keene when Im not off my face on something , then I reackon 3 or 5 minutes each, id take him down.

At a recent Combined Services tournament, Ray was in the analysis room instantly pointing out some pretty amazing lines. It's interesting that he has always been underestimated as a player. Bear in mind his last rating was before the massive inflation of Elo as well...

Kevin Thurlow wrote:It's interesting that he has always been underestimated as a player

Hmm, is that really true? ISTR he got quite a bit of kudos for his play in the 1970s..........

Of course, the way he gained his GM title (to take just one example) was always going to upset some people

benedgell wrote:As you may or may not be aware, George Chan has made a programme on chess entitled 'Timeshift: How To Win At Chess'.

Thanks for that. Who is George Chan, by the way?

PB

"Of course, the way he gained his GM title (to take just one example) was always going to upset some people"

True - but Olympiad teams are rarely argument-free! He did draw a lot of games latterly, but did produce some splendid attacking ideas, especially in the early 70s. Also, he became the second English GM - there are rather more now. When he was 25xx, the world's best were "only" 26xx, whereas 26xx now just about puts you in the top 100. So he could play a bit!

Kevin Thurlow wrote: Bear in mind his last rating was before the massive inflation of Elo as well...

Probably there is a little bit of ELO inflation - perhaps 30 points per decade,but obviously this is massively over compensated for by the continual rise in standards at all levels,which I would estimate to be something like 50 points per decade,though of course this is difficult to demonstrate mathematically;so that,while for example a 2400 rating will inflate to 2430 over 10 years,meanwhile a player of that rating will have had to become 50 points stronger during those 10 years just to maintain his position relative to the rest of the chess world.

Consequently,if a 2400 player remains the same strength over a 10 year period,then on the one hand inflation will take his rating up to 2430,but on the other hand he will find that because the average 2400 player has meanwhile gained in strength by 50 ELO points,his rating will now be 2380. These numbers are just random estimates,but I think the principle remains true.

Interestingly it has recently been suggested that the advent of ELO rating down to 1200 will probably have the same deflationary effect that we saw in the ECF grades.

As regards Ray Keene, I believe I may have actually been a factor in his decision to stop playing competitively.

I played Ray in a National Club match in November 1985. The result was the dullest of dull draws. I had White and set my stall out to be as boring as possible (I will pre-empt Kevin Thurlow's obvious retort and say "no news, there, then"). Ray, to be fair to him, tried hard to break down my position but did not succeed. At the end, he said "well defended!" - which I took as a compliment at the time though later suspecting he might have had ironical intent since I had been White in the game.

In 2001 I interviewed Keene for BCM (it appears in the October issue). I asked him why he had stopped playing competitively. His answer was as follows:

Ray Keene, Oct 2001 BCM wrote:I only actually stopped playing when I thought that I could not have a family and a mortgage and keep on dashing off to tournaments where I might or might not win a prize. It was an economic decision. I had to use chess to make a living but it had to be done in a way in which I could be sure that there was a living there. For example, in 1981, I bought a flat in Kensington: that was the first time I’d had a mortgage. And also in 1981 I won the Lloyds Bank Masters and came second in the Benedictine. I didn’t lose any games, I came ahead of Smyslov, Miles, Seirawan, guys like that. These were two very good results; but I worked out that I would have to win two such tournaments a month to pay the mortgage. This was not going to happen! Within four years of that I decided that I couldn’t afford to go on playing chess. I thought, well, if I’m not going to play all the time, I may as well stop playing totally. I would carry on with chess, but do it in a different way. More writing, more television, more organisation, more promotion; but as for actual playing, either I was going to play full-time or not at all.

My National Club game against Ray appears amongst his games on chessgames.com - it doesn't appear right at the end of the 1985 games because they are not in strict chronological order but I believe it may well have been his last outing as a competition player. Though he didn't say as much in his interview with me, I suspect there was a little voice in Ray's head which said "if I can't guarantee to put away the likes of Saunders, then it's time for me to pack it in." Coming soon... Ray Keene: My Part in His Downfall by John Saunders...

For some reason which I can't quite fathom, youngsters who only know RDK as a writer and journalist sometimes doubt whether Ray is or was a strong player. The answer is - of course, he was! He became a GM when that title really meant something, he won the British Championship in 1971 and he was probably Britain's best player between the decline of Jonathan Penrose and the rise of Tony Miles (1969-1975 or so). He was employed as second to Korchnoi for a world championship match so that speaks volumes for his reputation as an analyst. I guess his strength at his best would have equated to a modern-day player in the high 2500s or maybe just above 2600. Not having played for more than two decades, he would of course be nothing like that now if he started playing again, but I cannot see how his playing/analytical strength could have dropped below a minimum of, say, 2350-2400. Make no mistake, the guy still has a profound understanding of chess, a phenomenal memory for games and a sharp tactical eye.