Editing Raymond Keene (section)

==Chess-related work==

===Organiser===
Keene worked as a chess event organiser. He was the originator and organiser of the annual [[Howard Staunton|Staunton]] memorial chess tournaments, one of the few regular events for masters held in London.<ref>[[Howard Staunton]] memorial tournament [http://howardstaunton.com/hsmt2009/Home.html]</ref> The ''Oxford Companion'' comments: "By a combination of ability and shrewdness, Keene has attracted considerable [[sponsorship]] and has proved himself capable of efficient and rapid organisation of chess events".<ref name="OxfordCompanion"/><sup>p196</sup>

Keene brought [[Victor Korchnoi]] and [[Garry Kasparov]] together for their 1983 [[Candidates Tournament|Candidates']] semi-final match in London as part of the [[World Chess Championship 1984|1984 World Championship cycle]]; the semi-final match between [[Vasily Smyslov]] and [[Zoltán Ribli]] was also played at the same site. He organised the 1984 [[Russia (USSR) vs Rest of the World]] match in London within two weeks, enabling the event to go ahead on time after the previous plans had fallen through, described by [[John Nunn]] as "a magnificent organisational achievement at such short notice."<ref name="OxfordCompanion"/>

Keene has also been involved in organising several World Championship finals matches. He arranged for the first half of the [[World Chess Championship 1986]] return match between Kasparov and [[Anatoly Karpov|Karpov]] in London. The match, however, made a loss for the [[English Chess Federation|British Chess Federation]] (BCF) and, for reasons never clarified, he resigned from his position in the BCF shortly afterwards. He organised the 1993 [[Professional Chess Association|PCA]] World Championship match between Kasparov and [[Nigel Short]] in London, for which he was one of the official commentators along with Grandmasters [[Jonathan Speelman]] and [[Daniel J. King|Daniel King]]. He was the instrumental force behind 'Brain Games', which organized the [[Classical World Chess Championship 2000|World Championship match in 2000]] between Kasparov and [[Vladimir Kramnik]]. Following the match, however, he retained the trophy in lieu of money he believed he was owed by the collapse of Brain Games: Kramnik did not receive it until 2008.<ref>New in Chess, 2008, number 8, Nic's Café, p. 6.</ref> Brain Games later collapsed in controversial circumstances.

===Columnist===
Keene became the chess columnist of ''[[The Spectator]]'' in March 1977. His column was terminated in September 2019, when he was replaced by [[Luke McShane]].<ref>''[[The Spectator]]''{{'}}s decision to dismiss Keene for plagiarism was reported in ''Private Eye'', 18–31 October 2019, p. 9 (https://keenipedia.com/press)</ref> Following the retirement of [[Harry Golombek]], Keene was appointed the chess correspondent of ''[[The Times]]'' in 1985. In November 2019 he was replaced by [[David Howell (chess player)|David Howell]]. In December 1996 he became the chess columnist of the ''[[Sunday Times]]''. In August 2017 he was replaced by [[David Howell (chess player)|David Howell]].

===Television personality===
Keene has appeared on television. He covered the world championships of 1981, 1985, 1986, 1990, 1993, and 1995 for BBC 2, CHANNEL 4, and Thames TV. In the ''Duels of the Mind'' series which aired on the UK [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] network, Keene, along with South African author and civil rights campaigner [[Donald Woods]], discussed and analysed what Keene regarded as the twelve best chess games ever played.

===Magazine editor===
From 1978 to 1982, Keene was the editor of ''Modern Chess Theory'', a magazine on openings which included contributions from the Soviet world champions [[Mikhail Botvinnik]], [[Vasily Smyslov]], and [[Mikhail Tal]].

===Author===
Keene has written over 200 books on chess and mind games. He was for many years the Chess Advisor to [[Batsford]]. His early books such as ''Howard Staunton'' (1975, with R. N. Coles) often dealt with players with styles similar to his own.<ref name="OxfordCompanion"/> ''Aron Nimzowitsch: a Reappraisal'' (1974) is much admired and was revised and translated into Russian in 1986,<ref name="OxfordCompanion">{{Cite book |last1=Hooper |first1=David |author1-link=David Vincent Hooper |last2=Whyld |first2=Kenneth |author2-link=Kenneth Whyld |title=[[The Oxford Companion to Chess]] |year=1992 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=196 |isbn=0-19-280049-3 }}</ref> with an algebraic edition published in English in 1999.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/jwatson19.html|title=Book Reviews by IM John L Watson #19|author=John L. Watson|author-link=John L. Watson|year=1999|publisher=London Chess Center|access-date=2009-09-05|archive-date=24 June 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090624015107/http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/jwatson19.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1989, he and [[Nathan Divinsky]] wrote ''[[Comparison of top chess players throughout history#Warriors of the Mind|Warriors of the Mind]]'', an attempt to determine the 64 [[Comparison of top chess players throughout history|best chess players of all time]]. The statistical methods used have not met with wide approval, but the player biographies and games were regarded by one book as providing a good overview.<ref name="OxfordCompanion"/>

===Working for Korchnoi===
In 1978, along with [[Michael Stean]] and [[Jacob Murey]], Keene helped [[Viktor Korchnoi]] during the [[1978 World Chess Championship]] Karpov–Korchnoi match.<ref name=teamKorchnoi>{{cite web|url=https://www.business-gazeta.ru/article/313610|title=Матч Корчной – Карпов: как йоги, КГБ и экстрасенсы воевали за шахматную корону|date=12 June 2016 |publisher=business-gazeta.ru}} {{in lang|ru}}</ref>

===Working for Karpov===
In 1981, Keene came to the [[USSR]] and helped [[Anatoly Karpov]] prepare for the [[1981 World Chess Championship]] Karpov–Korchnoi match.<ref name=teamKorchnoi/>