The first pages of Nick Pitt’s “Keene’s Gambit” article in the Sunday Times Magazine

A list of mainstream media reports on Raymond Keene will be posted here with regular updates:

• “Keene’s Gambit” by Nick Pitt, in Sunday Times Magazine, 13 January 1991, pages 16-22 (full text available at The Streatham & Brixton Chess Blog)

On page 19 of the July 1991 CHESS Nick Pitt summarized the relative dependability of the two protagonists:

Keene: “Keene’s own version of events in Tunis … has changed, and some of his statements on the affair are contradicted by the documentary evidence.”

Miles: “Everything he told me that I have been able to test has proved to be correct.”

A series of reports on Raymond Keene has appeared in Private Eye:

• Issue 643, 8 August 1986, page 23 (Keene’s involvement with the Karpov vs Kasparov world championship match and his attacks on Florencio Campomanes)
• Issue 644, 22 August 1986, page 23 (Keene’s violation of his 1978 contract with Korchnoi, his ties with British chess publishers, the use of his columns to vilify his political opponents, and information on his phantom chess organizations)
• Issue 645, 5 September 1986, page 23 (On Keene’s “many wheelings and dealings”, including his relationship with David Goodman, the breach of his contract with Korchnoi, his rivalry with Campomanes, and his FIDE candidacy with Lincoln Lucena)
• Issue 646, 19 September 1986, page 12 (Letter from David Spanier defending Keene)
• Issue 648, 17 October 1986, page 27 (Disclosure of Keene’s ties with David Spanier and the latter’s lack of chess qualifications)
• Issue 649, 31 October 1986, page 15 (Letter from John Philpott defending Keene regarding his grandmaster title)
• Issue 650, 14 November 1986, page 14 (Letter from Kevin Thurlow maintaining that Private Eye was correct about Keene’s grandmaster title)
• Issue 821, 4 June 1993, page 9 (Keene’s involvement with the Professional Chess Association and the Times in staging the Kasparov vs Short match, and his work ethic during the 1978 Karpov vs Korchnoi match)
• Issue 822, 18 June 1993, page 9 (The involvement of Keene and the Times with the finances of the Kasparov vs Short match, Keene’s chess writing as a profiteering endeavour and his plagiarism of John Donaldson’s work)
• Issue 823, 2 July 1993, page 11 (Keene’s attempts to intimidate opposing voices, and exchanges between Private Eye and representatives of the Times)
• Issue 828, 10 September 1993, page 7 (An annotated summary of chess coverage of the Kasparov vs Short match in the Times (23 July-4 September 1993)
• Issue 1044, 28 December 2001, page 27 (On Keene’s troubled Brain Games Network)
• Issue 1046, 25 January 2002, page 7 (More on Brain Games Network)
• Issue ?, 8-21 February 2002, page 27 (Financial information about the Einstein Group, International Leisure Ltd., Brain Games, Atlantic Law and Andrew Greystoke)
• Issue ?, 22 March-4 April 2002, page 27 (A lengthy article about the Brain Games Network, including references to Giloberg Finance Ltd. and Sir Jeremy Hanley)
• Issue 1069, 13-26 December 2002, page 9 (Links between Brain Games Network and the TV company Einstein Group)
• Issue ?, 2-15 May 2003, page ? (Raymond Keene’s repeated use of his Times column to plug his book Brains in Bahrain (published by Hardinge Simpole Ltd.) without disclosing his interest)
• Issue ?, 11-24 July 2003, page 33 (An extensive update on the dealings of Brain Games Network Ltd.)
• Issue ?, 14-27 November 2003, page 27 (Keene’s business ventures and financial schemes in the Far East via Brain Games Asia)
• Issue ?, 11-24 December 2003, page 33 (On Brain Games Network’s insolvency)
• Issue 1222, 31 October-13 November 2008, page 5 (Keene’s plagiarism in the Spectator of Edward Winter’s Chess Notes column)
• Issue 1253, 8-21 January 2010, page 7 (Keene’s use of his Times and Spectator columns to plug books for Hardinge Simpole, despite his involvement with the company)
• Issue 1263, 28 May-10 June 2010, page 32 (On the legal troubles of Andrew Greystoke, a former legal representative of Brain Games Network)
• Issue 1301, 11-24 November 2011, page 30 (On Don Morris, an associate of Keene’s, and the bankrupt Brain Games Network)
• Issue 1343, 28 June-11 July 2013, page 29 (Keene’s plagiarism of Kasparov’s writings)
• Issue 1348, 6-19 September 2013, page 7 (More on Keene’s plagiarism of Kasparov, and the recycling of his own previous columns)
• Issue 1354, 29 November-12 December 2013, page 8 (An item on the extent of Keene’s plagiarism in The Times and the newspaper’s double standards in tolerating such conduct)
• Issue 1357, 10-23 January 2014, page 28 (Plagiarism of Kasparov by Keene in the Little book of Chess Secrets and, over 20 years ago, plagiarism of Donaldson in The Complete Book of Gambits)
• Issue 1359, 7-20 February 2014, page 13 (Rebuttal of Keene’s “pseudo-denial” of plagiarism)
• Issue 1371, 25 July-7 August 2014, page 7 (A report on plagiarism by another Times correspondent (tennis) begins: “The Times has no qualms about employing bubonic plagiarist Ray Keene as its daily chess columnist.”)
• Issue 1372, 8-21 August 2014, page 7 (A follow-up report on plagiarism by a Times tennis writer asks how the newspaper can justify still employing Raymond Keene, who is again described as a “bubonic plagiarist”)
• Issue 1377, 17-30 October 2014, page 6 (A further reference to Raymond Keene’s plagiarism and the fact that, despite “umpteen exposés”, he has not been sacked by the Times)
• Issue 1459, 15-22 December 2017, page 6 (Statistics on Raymond Keene’s “serial larcenies”: 137 columns with “substantial passages stolen from books and articles”, including “nine consecutive pieces blatantly, shamelessly plagiarised”)
• Issue 1507, 18-31 October 2019, page 9 (A lengthy account of Raymond Keene’s plagiarism, following the recent decision by The Spectator to sack him)
• Issue 1508, 1-14 November 2019, page 22 (A letter from Tony K. Blades comparing Raymond Keene’s output unfavourably with that of Leonard Barden and Malcolm Pein)
• Issue 1509, 15-28 November 2019, page 8 (A brief report on Raymond Keene’s imminent departure from The Times)
• Issue 1519, 3-23 April 2020, page 43 (An account of Raymond Keene’s involvement in the Tony Buzan Group Ltd. and in the Brain Games Network, and a report on the financial and legal activities of his associate Andrew Greystoke)

“Who else could have achieved so much publicity for the game in Private Eye?”

– Ida Eddis Foster (Kingpin, Summer 1989, page 11)