Edward Winter
FIDE awarded Raymond Keene the Grandmaster title in 1976.
Raymond Keene won the British chess championship in Blackpool in 1971.
See also Incorrigible.
The dust-jacket of Samurai Chess by Michael Gelb and Raymond Keene (London, 1997) described the latter as ‘winner of 14 separate British championship titles ...’ In his Kingpin review of the book Tony Miles commented:
‘That’s twelve more than are generally known about.’
In his ‘TheArticle’ column on 13 April 2024 Raymond Keene billed himself as having been ‘EU champion’:
The same assertion was on the back cover of his book Napoleon and Goethe: The Touchstone of Genius (Amazon Italy 2023):
Page 191 added a word in brackets:
The EU did not exist until many years after Raymond Keene retired from competitive play. As regards team events, page 289 of Fifty Shades of Ray (Edinburgh, 2021) listed ‘EEC Team Championship Berlin 1980 1st’.
The London Gazette, 14 June 1985, page B10 recorded that Raymond Keene had received an OBE (Order of the British Empire) ‘For services to Chess’:
Dissatisfied with what Her Majesty had bestowed upon him, Raymond Keene wrote as follows in a letter to Kate Hoey MP dated 19 May 2008:
Source (full letter): CHESS, October 2008, page 16.
Similarly on page 7 of Tony Buzan by Raymond Keene (Croydon, 2013):
The same wording was on page 5 of the 2017 edition:
A geographical re-write, from the Visioneers website:
Another one is on page 374 of a book whose co-authors were Raymond Keene and Barry Martin, Chess Through the Looking Glass (Amazon Italy 2024):
Seldom has an OBE been so milked. For example, C.N. 11864 noted how Raymond Keene presented himself in his book Fifty Shades of Ray:
There was also the 2014 book (Amazon France) Lorraine Gill The 10th Muse ‘Edited By Raymond Keene OBE’. In addition to the front cover and the spine, he mentioned his OBE five times in the first six pages. On page 6, for example, he signed off the Acknowledgements, and the story then turned to Lorraine Gill, although not for long:
The background to the OBE award was examined in issue 39 (Spring 2007) of Kingpin, in an article entitled Ex Acton ad Astra. From page 26:
‘The other long-term ambition that Keene fulfilled in mid-1985 was the acquiring of an honour, the Order of the British Empire. The key to this was the other old gentleman who was a regular guest at Keene’s parties. Sir Stuart Milner-Barry KCVO, CB, OBE had retired from a distinguished civil service career not only with several honours himself but also with excellent contacts in the department administering them. The British honours system has fallen into disrepute, but the damage has been done more by politicians and their cronies than civil servants. Sir Stuart Milner-Barry, at any rate, always came across as a model of old-school integrity.
In late 1984/early 1985, following Keene’s organizational achievements with the Candidates semi-finals and the USSR-World match, Sir Stuart could support Keene’s nomination with a clear conscience and in the belief the award was justified. The timing was fortunate, though, because had the question of recommending Keene arisen a year or two later then Sir Stuart might well have lost some sleep. By then Keene would have been accused of using a national newspaper column for his own political ends and of misspending the budget of a world championship match. He would also have failed in his bid to become the FIDE general secretary, and be facing expulsion from the BCF over the Tunis fiddle.’
See too Cuttings (on Raymond Keene, OBE, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V).
Our Cuttings feature article also provides a summary of Raymond Keene’s further education, at Trinity College, Cambridge:
The Daily Telegraph of 26 June 1968 (page 24) and of 2 July 1970 (page 15) record, together with the Historical Register of the University of Cambridge: Supplement, 1966-70, pages 331, 332 and 351, that in 1968 Raymond Dennis Keene passed the French examination of Part I of the Modern and Medieval Languages Tripos in Class II, Division 2, and the German examination of the same in Class II, Division 1. He passed Part II of the Tripos in 1970 in Class II, Division 1. Having passed the Tripos examinations, he was awarded an Honours BA degree. He obtained a Cambridge MA in 1974. Although he was admitted to an internal graduate studentship at Trinity College on 5 January 1971, this did not lead to a qualification. His name does not appear on the list of resident members of the University published in October 1971.
However ...
The above is from the ‘Our Faculty’ page of the ‘World Brain Academy’. Below is an X/Twitter post by Raymond Keene on 12 October 2023:
On his Ambitions Fulfilled website (2026) the Professor title was expanded:
‘Honoured with various Professorial and Doctoral titles including from Liaquat University, Karachi, Pakistan and Fondazione Internazionale Papa Clemente XI – Albani, Tirana, Albania.’
Source: page 193 of Napoleon and Goethe.
‘Appointed Professor, Dr, and Senatore Accademico by the Fondazione Internazionale Papa Clemente XI – Albani.’
Source: page 374 of Chess Through the Looking Glass.
In an In-Sight Publishing interview with Scott Douglas Jacobsen (15 April 2018) Raymond Keene announced:
‘I have been made a Count! So, I am His Excellency Raymond Dennis Raymond Order of the British Empire (OBE), international chess Grandmaster, and Count of the Order of Torres Vedras, Portugal. I am the first person in the history of chess to be made a Count on account of his chess ability.
It is spelled Torres Vedras. It means “Green Towers”. Of course, “Torres” in Portuguese is the same as a chess rook: “Count of the Green Towers.” It’s a genuine title awarded by the legal descendants of the Imperial House of Braganza in Portugal.’
‘His Excellency Raymond Dennis Raymond [sic] Order ...’ is indeed how the name appeared in the interview:
On page 288 of Fifty Shades of Ray an autobiographical note stated:
‘Created Count of Torres Vedras by The Protector of the Portuguese Royal House of Saxe Coburgo Braganza.’
See also under Ragbag below.
‘It is in that spirit, and in my capacity as Bishop of the World Christianship Ministries, that I now confer upon Andy Burnham the title Pacis Defensor: Defender of the Peace. This honour recognises his exceptional efforts in ending conflict, promoting harmony and building enduring bridges of understanding between the diverse faith communities of the United Kingdom, upon this particular, precious and beloved island fragment of God's Creation.’ Article by Raymond Keene in the Daily UK Times, 22 July 2026.
From page 7 of his 2013 book on Tony Buzan, and page 5 of the 2017 edition:
‘Ray was twice the winner of the Oscar for world’s best writer on chess.’
It merely concerned an ‘association’ which he concocted with Dmitrije Bjelica. See Chess Awards.
From page 193 of Napoleon and Goethe:
A similar list was on pages 374-375 of Chess Through the Looking Glass.
The above-referenced Visioneers webpage lists Raymond Keene as ‘President of The Institute for Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition, Imperial College’.
We have observed no occurrences of ‘Sir Raymond Keene’ in his own
writings, but it is seen increasingly. ‘Sir’ appears four times on a Facebook item dated 24
September 2026 on the page of Atta Ul Haq, who is Raymond Keene’s co-director of Ambitions Fulfilled:
Addition on 25 September 2026:
The Facebook item is now featured by Raymond Keene, without comment, as an X/Twitter post:
Afterword
Many other claims and references have been noted and will be added if required.
Concerning Raymond Keene’s activities and assertions in the realm of ‘companies’, ‘charities’ and other bodies, we refer readers to the investigative work of Justin Horton. See too his article ‘Brain Scam’, about the ‘Brain Trust Charity’.
There is a wealth of further material in Kingpin, edited by Jonathan Manley. His website includes the above-mentioned article Ex Acton ad Astra and its sequel, Machiavelli on Ice.
See also Keenipedia.
Other feature articles on Raymond Keene.
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for other feature articles.
Copyright Edward Winter. All rights reserved.