English Chess Forum

Hard to believe that the UK's second ever OTB GM and The Times correspondent is now 70 years old. With all the chat about what he does off the board its easy to forget just how brilliant he could be on it. An example which has always remained with me is his game against Kovacevic in 1973 in Amsterdam which could easily have been compared with one of Tal's in his prime.

At a German tournament in 1977, he got a well merited draw with Black against an absolutely rampant Karpov.

Given everything else that has happened, it is maybe worth reminding ourselves that in his day Ray could play!

Yes - the Kovacevic game has always been a favourite of mine.

Happy Birthday - The big 7- 0.

Ray's Hastings win v Miles in 1976 was an inspiring eye opener.

Like most of his books. The 1978 World C. C. coverage is just a great book.
Wonderful games, off the board incidents and Ray's often humorous notes and comments.

Not everyone's cup of tea but I think he is O.K. A lovable minor villain.
Done a lot for British chess (and brings other players notes to a wider audience )

Recently I said he is the one person I'd love to have dinner with.
(I'll probably get stumped with bill whilst Ray went to the loo and jumped out the window. )
He would have 100's of anecdotes. Like to see them in book form.

Hope he makes an appearance at the World Championship. I intend to be there, like to meet him.
Think we could work well together on a live coverage show. It would be different...very different...unmissable.

Geoff Chandler wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 29, 2018 8:01 pm

Not everyone's cup of tea but I think he is O.K. A lovable minor villain.
Done a lot for British chess (and brings other players notes to a wider audience )

I think a lot of people do him a disservice. There is a lot of talk of decline since the heyday of the 70's and 80's. He played a major role in the success of English in chess in the 80's via the bucket loads of cash he squeezed out of sponsors for English chess. Literally millions of pounds, and those 1980's pounds bought a lot more then than they do today. There has been no comparable figure since and as lottery funding for Olympic sportsmen and women has demonstrated you can buy sporting success.

Geoff Chandler wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 29, 2018 8:01 pm

Like most of his books. The 1978 World C. C. coverage is just a great book.

Not just a great book, but one written in breach of contract, and had he devoted his energy to fulfilling that contract, the man he cheated might have become world champion.

Milner-Barry's this-is-our-chap-so-go-away-little-manresponse is an absolute masterpiece of British hypocrisy and kind of set the tone for everything that followed on from there.

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 30, 2018 7:02 am

Milner-Barry's this-is-our-chap-so-go-away-little-manresponse is an absolute masterpiece of British hypocrisy

Euwe seems to have considered himself an honorary Brit in this respect.

Happy Birthday Penguin Bit of a self-publicist, very self-important but there was a time when I thought RDK was the mutts nuts - his early books, borrowed from the local library taught me chess at school age, beyond the basic moves and Samurai Chess: Mastering the art of the mind, taught me…

And remember, the money was just resting in the account until he moved it on!

Good commentary in the 1993 coverage too.

He was always a bit of a rogue (his double crossing of Korchnoi referred to above should certainly not be forgotten, VLK never forgot it for sure) but up until the 1980s it was possible to argue the positive stuff he achieved for British chess still counted for more.

When did the real descent into the dark side begin?

1978 is as good a date as any

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 29, 2018 2:39 pm

... Ray could play!

Indeed. E.g.
http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.c ... lay-x.html

not fogetting his win over Botvinnik
http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.c ... -play.html

Ray saying the victory being "more his fault than mine", iirc




With regard to your later question. I would suggest perhaps 1974 and the to-do with/regarding Bill Hartston over playing/not playing and Norms at the Nice Olympiad.

Just push the date back to 1948, and be done