Following RDK on Twitter

[Alex McFarlane]

Ray Keene thinks it is bizzarre that people would follow him on Twitter to see if he will apologise for calling members of the British control team bigots and brutish.
He has invited me to ask people to do so. So I am.

[Paul McKeown]

Don't do Twitter, sorry. Wouldn't do Twitter even if it was the Dalai Lama.

[Paul Cooksey]

I am very disappointed to see another thread on this subject.

I'd understood the mutual apologies to be an attempt to draw a line under the matter.

[Alex McFarlane]

There is no problem between CJ and the control team. But there are other issues which have arisen.
Lara's job in an inclusion unit of a school means that the false accusations levelled in the press must be retracted. She would not be able to do her job properly if pupils saw the accusations made against her.
The Times has ignored these requests and it is being investigated by the PCC. The Observer is dragging its heels but is looking at it.

[Ian Kingston]

Having just looked at the Times_Chess Twitter feed, I will observe that it is excessively dull (except for the part where Alex takes him on). In usual RDK style he now proudly claims to have 'one of the fastest growing #chess twitter sites', but I won't be following.

[Jon Mahony]

I’d have to say no, I do read his times chess column (for free - a guy at work who gets the times clips it out for me, sadly he’s retiring in September so my supply of bootleg RDK will be cut off!) And in fairness his chess analysis is usually quite interesting.

I’ve no problem with RDK so won’t indulge in what Tony Miles dubbed “Mondo bashing” Some of his books (leaving “samurai chess” aside!) are quite good and he usually comes over well on TV - though I would have given the half black / half white bow ties a miss!

However, whenever asked to comment on controversial issues in Chess, I always feel RDK jumps to one, extreme and ill-considered opinion - often (as with the recent CJ incident) backed up by unnamed and/or dubious academic sources.

Often, when his opinions attract heavy criticism or just prove to be incorrect, he will backtrack and squirm - anything to avoid actually admitting he’s made a gaff.

[Simon Spivack]

I don't subscribe to Twitter.

From what I've seen of this affair, Alex McFarlane has behaved in an exemplary manner, having been subjected to considerable provocation.

If Murdoch is forced to divest his newspaper interests in the UK, I hope that the new owner of The Times will insist upon a more suitable chess correspondent than an individual who features so balefully in Private Eye. Anyone looking for further information could do worse than spend some time reading the articles available from the Kingpin website.

I subscribe to the FT and Telegraph. It would never occur to me to subscribe to The Times whilst its chess column is so poor. I hope that any subscribers to The Times reading this thread will write to the newspaper in support of Alex.

[Paul Cooksey]

From what I've seen of this affair, Alex McFarlane has behaved in an exemplary manner, having been subjected to considerable provocation.

I recall a few years ago a debate about full time professional football referees in the Premiership. The tabloids strongly supported professionalism. I don't often subscribe to conspiracy theories, but I believe whole heartedly the tabloids' motive was to make it easier to criticise referees. They were always slightly limited in how far they could go, by the argument it was against the interest of the game to criticise volunteers who the game depended on.

I note the Chess Arbiters Association are volunteers. So I'll shut up, both about the incident itself and my hope the PCC investigation does not reignite the issue.

[Alex Holowczak]

I recall a few years ago a debate about full time professional football referees in the Premiership. The tabloids strongly supported professionalism. I don't often subscribe to conspiracy theories, but I believe whole heartedly the tabloids' motive was to make it easier to criticise referees. They were always slightly limited in how far they could go, by the argument it was against the interest of the game to criticise volunteers who the game depended on.

I note the Chess Arbiters Association are volunteers. So I'll shut up, both about the incident itself and my hope the PCC investigation does not reignite the issue.

The stupid thing is, they confuse "professionalism" with making mistakes. Wenger frequently claims that the referees are supposed to be professional. But so are his own players. If they stamp on a guy's leg, they then can't complain that the referee was being unprofessional by sending him off. Indeed, the referee probably makes far fewer mistakes in the game than the players do.

[Sebastian Stone]

I already follow him on twitter, but I rarely visit twitter.

[JustinHorton]

I rather enjoy Ray's Twitter. One of my favourite aspects is the way every time a couple more people start following him, he Tweets that it's a new record.

[Michael Jones]

I appear to have missed out on some news here (I probably wasn't paying attention). Could someone please enlighten me as to the matter which has provoked this discussion?

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

My recollection is that Raymond Keene, OBE, turned up on the last day of the British Championships wearing an XXXL t-shirt bearing the slogan "Some people are gay, get over it" (available for £10 + £2.50 P&P from Stonewall). This probably wouldn't have been a problem, but it was all he wearing and so he was ejected from the tournament hall by a dozen strong men. He has been whinging about his treatment ever since.

[Michael Jones]

Thank you, Jon. Sounds like fairly normal behaviour for some chess players I know.

[Gavin Strachan]

My recollection is that Raymond Keene, OBE, turned up on the last day of the British Championships wearing an XXXL t-shirt bearing the slogan "Some people are gay, get over it" (available for £10 + £2.50 P&P from Stonewall). This probably wouldn't have been a problem, but it was all he wearing and so he was ejected from the tournament hall by a dozen strong men. He has been whinging about his treatment ever since.

lucky it wasn't xxxs