GM Raymond Keene

Raymond Dennis Keene (b. 29 January 1948) is an influential figure in the chess world off the board, bringing many notable chess events to London.  He is also the author of a significant number of chess books, including a well respected treatise on Nimzowitsch titled Aron Nimzowitsch: A Reappraisal, and a chess book claimed to have been authored over a weekend!

Educated at Dulwich College and Trinity College, Cambridge (where he studied modern languages), Keene rose to prominence in the chess scene in the early seventies.  He won the British Chess Championship at Blackpool in 1971.  At that time the UK had no GMs, and its best known player was the highly respected Jonathan Penrose (who famously beat Mikhail Tal in 1960).  Keene was part of the first group of British players to achieve the necessary norms to become a GM - beaten to the finish line in 1976 by Tony Miles for the title of first British GM.

Keene's playing style tended toward to strategically original and positional.  Favouring hypermodern openings such as the Modern Defence, his style of play was strongly influenced by Nimzowitsch, and thus his adoption of Indian-type openings and positions (including the Nimzo-Indian Defence and the King's Indian Defence).

However, it is not as a player Keene is best known. His contributions to the organizational side of chess contrast with the mire of politicking and back-biting that sometimes overshadowed his  successes.  Keene is also responsible for a number of significant chess events:

• Keene was Viktor Korchnoi's second during his World Championship match against Anatoly Karpov in Baguio City, Philippines, 1978.

• Keene brought Viktor Korchnoi and Garry Kasparov together for the famous 1983 Candidates semi-final match in London.  This match was a pivotal moment in Kasparov's march to the World Championship.

• Keene arranged for the first half of the 1986 World Championship return match between Kasparov and Karpov to be played in London.

• Keene was the instrumental force behind 'Brain Games', which organised the Kasparov vs Vladimir Kramnik match.

Keene remains the chess correspondent of The Times newspaper, and The Spectator magazine, as well as the International Herald Tribune, and will probably remain influential in the chess world for the years to come.

Keene occasionally appears on television, most notably as main presenter of Duels Of The Mind, a series which aired on the UK ITV network.

Read also our 20-Questions interview with GM Keene.  Chessville is proud to welcome GM Keene to the neighborhood.