O.G. Urcan wrote:PeterFarr wrote:O.G. Urcan wrote:
We are told by Professor Kennaway, Chairman of the ECA , that he envisages the new body as rather like the Friends of Chess in the best tradition of the Slater sponsorship."
That standpoint of the ECA's first Chairman was contradicted yesterday by Andrew Zigmond when he wrote categorically: "the English Chess Association was founded by Raymond Keene in the late 1980s as a rival to the then British Chess Federation."
Andrew was surely correct to say so, as evidenced by your own earlier post in this thread, showing a page if a book by Keene listing the 'ECA' as the national chess association for England.
It is well known that Mr Keene left the BCF following a dispute which had roots going back to the 1985 Tunis Interzonal.
It is important to recall that on 16 October 1987 Professor Kennaway wrote a fax to the
Times which said:
"I was given to understand by Ray Keene that the idea of the ECA was to act in addition to and not in competition with the BCF. I accepted the designated office of Chairman on that understanding..."
Later in the fax, Professor Kennaway wrote:
"I have read this statement over to Ray Keene who confirms entirely my understanding of his intentions - I would hope that the BCF would not take his initiative as a competitive one..."
The full text can be read at
http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/relief.html, a link given in my post of 17 December 2013 (which also showed the page from Raymond Keene's
Pocket Book of Chess, published in 1988, which omitted mention of the BCF and gave instead contact details for the ECA).
The very same link to 'Chess Notes' contains the following extract from 'The Times', October 1987:
"Breakaway splits chess body
The British Chess Federation (BCF) is to be challenged by a new body aiming to popularize chess through television tournaments and sponsorship.
The English Chess Federation is being set up by Mr Raymond Keene, who last night resigned as publicity directory of the BCF and English Delegate to the International Chess Federation.
Mr Keene, who is chess correspondent of The Times, and also writes for The Spectator, said that his writing activities and his plans were not compatible with remaining a director of the BCF.
His resignation is the second shock to strike the quiet world of competition chess and it signals a major split in the close-knit community.
“I am not overjoyed with the BCF. I think they are old-fashionedâ€, Mr Keene said last night....."
Clear enough, surely? The newspaper of which Mr Keene is chess correspondent reports that the new organisation is a 'split' a 'breakaway' and a 'challenge'.