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Ray Keene Chess Puzzle Murder Case?

A

Anonymous

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Found a mention here
Date: 07 Jun 2004 23:23:36
From: Alan OBrien
Subject: Re: Ray Keene solves murder

"Alan OBrien" <[email protected] > wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On the back cover of the book 'Clash of the Titans' by Ray Keene about the
> 1990 K v K match the blurb says, talking about Ray himself:
>
> "Recently he played a key role in a celebrated murder investigation by
> solving a chess-like problem for the police."

Here is some more info, from Chess Monthly in November 1990 (and reprinted
in Forbes's Meet The Masters):
"The publicity in this case", declared GM Keene, speaking of his recent
involvement as a code-breaking sleuth in a sensational murder hunt, "has
increased the perception in the public mind of chess players as people with
superhuman intelligence, which does nothing but good for chess."

"It was immense. I gave about 45 interviews to newspapers, magazines,
television and radio. It was on Sky TV, ITN, CBS and CNN in the US, and CBC
in Canada. I've had calls from Australia, New Zealand, France and Italy. It
was on the front page of the Times and the Sunday Times for 4 days running.
There was almost a full page in the Daily Mail, a large article in the
Sun...absolutely endless. I did nothing but give interviews last week." (No
body has yet been found and nobody prosecuted -Cathy Forbes).
Click to expand...
 
thanks sall... all that coverage and nothing about the actual case tho..odd
 
Raymond Keene has always struck me as a rather self-obsessed publicity seeking character.

Private Eye have reported on a number of his dubious business connections and dealings.

All in all - comes across as a bit of a shit.

My suspicion would be that this a bit of publicity nonsense for Keene (probably based on very little fact and semi-invented by him).

My main question would be - if the police needed a chess problem solving in order to solve a crime - why go to Keene who is - at best - a middle ranking UK player. Surely, you would go to one of the top ranking players? Not sure who this would have been back in 1990 - Nigel Short - Jonathon Speelman - Jonathon Nunn spring to mind. It just doesn't fit - why Raymond "The Penguin" Keene?

It would be like asking a local GP to assist the police with advice relating to a specific case of poisoning. It just wouldn't happen - they would go to a toxicologist specialising in that area.
 
Bilderberger said:
My main question would be - if the police needed a chess problem solving in order to solve a crime - why go to Keene who is - at best - a middle ranking UK player. Surely, you would go to one of the top ranking players? Not sure who this would have been back in 1990 - Nigel Short - Jonathon Speelman - Jonathon Nunn spring to mind. It just doesn't fit - why Raymond "The Penguin" Keene?
Click to expand...

The obvious answer for me would be that Mr Keene wrote the chess column in the Times and would therefore be the most visible grandmaster. Your average non-chess playing plod would therefore not draw a distinction from a journalist and a current world championship challenger.
 
Red_Dalek said:
The obvious answer for me would be that Mr Keene wrote the chess column in the Times and would therefore be the most visible grandmaster. Your average non-chess playing plod would therefore not draw a distinction from a journalist and a current world championship challenger.
Click to expand...

Fair point - but Speelman and others all act as Chess Columnists in broadsheet newspapers. At least they were active high quality players - Keene is more of a businessman.

It would be like asking John Motson to score penalties for England in Euro 2004 instead of David Beckham !?

(spot the difference.... :p )
 
Bilderberger said:
Fair point - but Speelman and others all act as Chess Columnists in broadsheet newspapers. At least they were active high quality players - Keene is more of a businessman.
Click to expand...
I think that you may have indirectly answered your own question here Bildeberger.
Short, Speelman, Nunn, et al as active players would probably have been dotted around the globe playing in whatever events were on at the time. Ray Keene would presumably be the only player that they had heard of who would be consistantly present in London.
Also the others probably wouldn't have had the same time to help the police as it would have disrupted their training schedules. Whereas for an ex-player who at the time was most noticeable for his writings, this must have been good publicity.
 
Red_Dalek said:
I think that you may have indirectly answered your own question here Bildeberger.
Short, Speelman, Nunn, et al as active players would probably have been dotted around the globe playing in whatever events were on at the time. Ray Keene would presumably be the only player that they had heard of who would be consistantly present in London.
Also the others probably wouldn't have had the same time to help the police as it would have disrupted their training schedules. Whereas for an ex-player who at the time was most noticeable for his writings, this must have been good publicity.
Click to expand...

Yes - with the wonderful benefits of hindsight - I do entirely agree.

Raymond Keene is still a bit of a shit though :D
 
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