Edward Winter
Pages 215-232 of Curse of Kirsan by Sarah Hurst (Milford, 2002) have an interview with Raymond Keene. From page 220:
Readers with access to the 1971 BCM will find (September issue, pages 312-320) that W. Ritson Morry wrote very differently. Firstly, most of his criticisms about short draws concerned the players in general. For example, from page 312:
Moreover, what Mr Keene told Sarah Hurst about his game against Holt bears little relation to what Ritson Morry actually wrote in the BCM (page 314):
Pursuing his mendacious vendetta against Ritson Morry, Mr Keene misled readers of chessgames.com (as so often), in a posting dated 23 September 2006:
‘in fact i started out as a very positional player indeed and i made a conscious effort to improve my tactics. a lot of the whingeing about my style was from people like ritson morry who had their own axes to grind-i write about this in my forthcoming book on petrosian-in the context of the criticisms levelled against petrosian in the soviet press after the 1956 candidates tournament.
for example i won the woolacombe international in 1973-the strongest all play all outside hastings in the uk for many years-and in his bcm report ritson morry failed to give any of my wins and only mentioned in passing that i had won the event! the british championship i won included several games of huge length -one over 120 moves- but i was of course criticised by ritson morry for lack of fighting spirit! he was so far off the truth then that there was an outcry and the decline of his influence over the bcm dates from that point.’
It is true that Ritson Morry’s tournament reports did not praise Mr Keene, but that can hardly justify the way the latter banged on about the matter on page 7 of Petrosian vs the Elite (London, 2006):
Any reader who consults Ritson Morry’s report (BCM, November 1973, pages 463-467) will find the following:
(8443)
Addition on 16 May 2021:
Despite the above rebuttal, Raymond Keene repeated his same falsehoods in an Article piece dated 8 May 2021:
‘After winning the British Championship in 1971, reports by an influential writer of the day (whose name I shall withhold, according to the formula: de mortuis nihil nisi bonum) referred to my lack of fighting spirit, when I had actually made speculative and unsound sacrifices to force events and gone through multiple adjournments with games lasting for days and over 100 moves. The same, at least in my opinion, talent-free critic went even further when I won the international tournament at Woolacombe in 1973, writing a report which more or less failed to mention me, apart from focusing attention on my only loss! In the West, this kind of idiocy is irritating, annoying even, but not much more. In the paranoia-laden atmosphere of Soviet officialdom, adverse critique from an established quarter could be career or even life-threatening.’
Addition on 18 May 2021:
In a post at the English Chess Forum on 17 May 2021, Olimpiu G. Urcan summarized the matter as follows:
‘With untrue statements, Raymond Keene has repeatedly attacked a deceased chess figure, and has continued recycling those untrue statements even though they have been publicly refuted.’
An update on two matters:
In his ‘TheArticle’ piece of 13 September 2025 Raymond Keene falls back on a watered-down version of his attacks on the deceased W. Ritson Morry, but still with no acknowledgement of his untruths and, even, with a new one.
‘I know the taste of such false criticism. When I won the British Championship in 1971, I was told by one prominent chess writer that I lacked fighting spirit. This in spite of the fact that I sacrificed recklessly, played games that stretched over days, and fought until the end. Later, when I won an international tournament, he wrote almost nothing of my victory and much of my single loss. In England such misreporting is only irritating. In Russia it might have destroyed a career, or worse.’
Regarding, firstly, his games in the 1971 British Championship, Mr Keene has asserted over the years:
Britbase gives all 11 of Raymond Keene’s games. Round by round, the number of moves was 41, 29, 128, 25, 62, 30, 37, 38, 14, 31, 13.
Next, Raymond Keene’s claims about Ritson Morry’s coverage of the Woolacombe ‘international’ tournament in 1973:
‘i won the woolacombe international in 1973-the strongest all play all outside hastings in the uk for many years-and in his bcm report ritson morry failed to give any of my wins and only mentioned in passing that i had won the event!’
‘The same talent-free critic went even further when I won the international tournament at Woolacombe in 1973, writing a report which more or less failed to mention me, apart from publishing my only loss!’
‘The same, at least in my opinion, talent-free critic went even further when I won the international tournament at Woolacombe in 1973, writing a report which more or less failed to mention me, apart from focusing attention on my only loss!’
‘... when I won an international tournament, he wrote almost nothing of my victory and much of my single loss.’
Exact citations are given in Cuttings, which pointed out 12 years ago that Ritson Morry’s tournament report in the BCM gave a complete crosstable, that Raymond Keene’s name appeared a further nine times on the same page, and that a win by Mr Keene was included.
His 13 September 2025 formulation about Ritson Morry on Woolacombe, 1973 is new: ‘he wrote almost nothing of my victory and much of my single loss’. In reality, Ritson Morry wrote a mere 11 neutral words about the defeat: ‘In round 6 Keene went down to the rapidly advancing Cardoso.’ The bare scores of two Keene games, the loss to Cardoso and a win against Hutchings, were given side-by-side at the end of the report, without comment.
Addition on 18 June 2026:
Regarding the interview with which the present article begins, below is the tape transcript of a further comment by Raymond Keene on the 1971 British Championship in Blackpool:
‘... where I had one 128-move game and one game that lasted sixty moves and was full of amazing sacrifices ...’
The latter game, in which Mr Keene was Black in round five against Alan Templeton Ludgate, is shown below, taken from John Saunders’ invaluable BritBase:
1 d4 g6 2 e4 Bg7 3 Nc3 d6 4 f4 Nc6 5 Nf3 Bg4 6 Be3 Bxf3 7 gxf3 d5 8 Ne2 e6 9 Qd3 Nge7 10 O-O-O f5 11 Kb1 Qd7 12 c4 O-O 13 c5 b6 14 Rc1 Rfb8 15 e5 Na5 16 Rc2 Nc4 17 Nc1 Nc6 18 Qc3 b5 19 Bxc4 dxc4 20 h4 h5 21 Rg1 Ne7 22 Qe1 Kh7 23 Rg3 Bh6 24 Ne2 Nd5 25 Bd2 a5 26 Qg1 Qf7 27 Rc1 c6 28 Qe1 Qe7 29 Rg2 Qa7 30 Qg3 Rg8 31 Qe1 Qa6 32 Qd1 Nb4 33 Rc3 Nd5 34 Rc1 Rab8 35 Qc2 Rb7 36 Rg3 Qa8 37 Qd1 Qd8 38 Rh3 Rgg7 39 Qe1 Ra7 40 Rh2 Qa8 41 Rg2 Nb4 42 Rc3 Qd8 43 Qg3 Nd3 44 Be3 Nxc5 45 dxc5 b4 46 Rxc4 Qd3+ 47 Rc2 Qxe3 48 Rg1 Rad7 49 Rf1 Rd5 50 Re1 Qd3 51 Nc1 Qb5 52 Qh2 Rxc5 53 Nb3 Rxc2 54 Qxc2 a4 55 Nc5 b3 56 axb3 axb3 57 Nxb3 Bxf4 58 Nc5 Ra7 59 Qc3 Bd2 60 Qxd2 Qxc5 61 f4 Qc4 62 Rd1 Qe4+ 63 White resigns.
‘... full of amazing sacrifices ...’
Addition on 14 July 2026:
‘I know this kind of criticism first-hand. When I won the British Championship in 1971, one prominent writer claimed I lacked fighting spirit, despite reckless sacrifices and games fought to exhaustion. Later, covering an international win, he dwelt on my single loss and said almost nothing about the victory. In England that’s merely irritating. Elsewhere, it could end a career.’
Addition on 17 July 2026:
And again elsewhere:
‘I know this kind of criticism first-hand. When I won the British Championship in 1971, one prominent writer claimed I lacked fighting spirit, despite reckless sacrifices and games fought to exhaustion. Later, covering an international win, he dwelt on my single loss and said almost nothing about the victory. In England that’s merely irritating. Elsewhere, it could end a career.’
What further versions will be tried?
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