WINTER'S RATPACKERS
By GM Raymond Keene
This is the third part of my recent extended involvement in the
deliberations of this august forum. First of all, I would like to make
a number of general points before I go through everything that has
been introduced -- some might say rehashed without supporting evidence
-- since my last contribution.
I am enjoying this debate immensely and find the mental exercise
exhilarating. It provides useful copy for my forthcoming book WINTER OF
DISCONTENT, RAY KEENE AND THE RATPACKERS on which I am currently
working (to be published by HARDINGE SIMPOLE). I am truly grateful to
those who have pointed out typos -- it's a wonderful free proofreading
service. In fact some ratpackers have shown that chess proofreading
might have been their true calling in life.
Next I must remind everyone, as othersalready pointed out, that we are
still waiting for TAYLOR KINGSTONS promised response to my critique of
his review of my book on Nimzowitsch.
Next someone called Skeptic (a certain Mr. Pipel) has complained that
I am inaccurate compared with Alekhine, Purdy, Botvinnik, etc., etc.,
etc. Sadly this gent instantly undermines his own case by spelling
Purdy as Prudy and Alekhine as Alehkine. However, I won't make a
ratpackerish fuss about his typos.
A number of ratpackers have ganged up to prove that I am inaccurate,
careless, sloppy, and a hack just writing for the money. Some even
claim I am one of the wealthiest chessplayers around. I find this
amazing. How on earth do they know my motives for writing or details of
my bank account? Beats me. This is frankly idle speculation or smears.
I fear that chess defeats all of us in the end. It's a quasi infinite
activity that leaves the human brain struggling. If we know anything
about chess, it is next to nothing.
Just look at the computer-checked notes in Kasparovs Great
Predecessors series. Hallowed masterpieces and comments considered
sacrosanct for decades have now been exposed as fallible by Fritz.
Anyone who claims that perfection is possible when tackling the
immensity that is chess is either a fool or a knave. We humans do our
best, but it's seldom good enough.
KINGPIN, for example, is a magazine that has been very hostile to
me, taking the Winter stance/ It's a small circulation magazine whose
current issue indicates it may now appear perhaps three times a year.
Today I saw issue 38 for spring/summer 2006, the first one since issue
37 for 2003/2004. So it took around two years to produce 64 pages,
much less than any of my books. A swift 90 second glance reveals the
following mistakes -- who knows how many more had I spent another 30
seconds on this task.
No fewer than eight diagrams have the black queen missing
Page 43 suffers from the curious blunder of having most of the 3s
missing in a game that goes through moves 30 -39 WITH NOTES. Highly
disconcerting.
Page 25 performs a similar trick with the letter S.
Both diagrams on page 16 have great white chunks imposed on them, thus
rendering them unintelligible
How the ratpackers would howl if I committed such errors in so small
a space!
Let me bring more blunders to your attention. Mr. Skeptic quoted
Alekhine (sorry "alehkine") as a paragon. Don't get me wrong. I adore
him and prefer him to Capablanca because I see a huge element of human
striving as opposed to Capa's God given talent. To me Capa is the
mozart of chess and Alekhine the Beethoven.
Anyway, with profuse apologies to the immortal Alekhine, I must point
out that on pages 26 and 27 of the tournament book of London 1932
(Koltanowski vs. Sultan Khan) one of his notes just hangs a piece.
Larry Evans points out other errors by the great man in WHAT CAN WE WE
TRUST? at WCN on 4/3/06.
http://wcn.tentonhammer.com/modules....s&file=article
&sid=664
Jennifer Shahade's new book CHESS BITCH can't even spell
Gaprindashvili, the
former women's world champion correctly, as Sarah Hurst pointed out.
Andy Soltis' book on Frank Marshall hangs a knight to a simple queen
check on page 268. These two items that passed over my desk today!.
BUT NO. According to the ratpackers Ray Keene is the quintesssential
demon who commits numerous errors, writes much too quickly, and is a
hack. Does this also imply that KINGPIN is a hack magazine or that
Alekhine, Soltis and Shahade also show contempt for the public?
Of course not.
And when errors are pointed out I am sure that the editor of
KINGPIN
will be mortified and upset that these typos escaped him.
As far as contempt for the public goes, yesterday I received a quite
unsolicited email from the Icelandic Chess Federation thanking me for
my work in general. Last week W. Smith, England's largest book
retailer, ordered thousands of copies of one of my recent books. And my
mailbag from appreciative readers of my columns grows each week!
LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING HONESTLY. When I put together the 2000 world
chess championship, raised the money, organised the match, met my daily
deadline with Times reports, wrote the book, did theTV webcast with GM
Danny King and then still had energy to enjoy a fine dinner with an all
time great like GM Evans, I felt a tremendous sense of fulfillment. A
burst of energy. I doubt I could have written better notes for my book
than if I took 10 years. When I saw Kramnik's improvement for Kasparov
in game ten at move 15 published a few months later, I realised that
this was something beyond my powers. That's why Kramnik became world
champion and I am only a grandmaster.
I should add that Kramnik did not cover the whole match in his
article, just extracts. But what extracts! Anyone expecting Kasparov to
go into detail about this contest where he lost the title may have to
wait a very long time.
Now let's turn to other concrete points
1. I mentioned the frequency of Taylor Kingston's reviews of my books.
I found two on the ChessCafe archive, both reviewed by him. This looks
like 100% to me.
2. Copyright violation. I pointed out that much of his Nimzo review
was a quote from my material. Ditto for my 2000 book on the world
championship.
3. The vital importance of context is demonstrated by the next charge,
that I personally described the 1983 Kasparov vs. Korchnoi match as a
world championship. Well a TK cohort helpfully pointed out the origin
of this is the foto and subheading on the front cover of my match book.
Indeed, that was the official title of the match agreed by Campomanes
at the time as part of the sponsorship deal, ,justified by the fact
that the contest was an official part of the world championship cycle.
If you dont like it, please complain to campo and not to me.
4. Typos. Thanks, guys, it's a really useful free service for the new
editions of my books. Perhaps you should also volunteer your services
to the editor of KINGPIN. He needs it -- and how!
5. I continue to maintain that TK should have spotted the blunder in
Duras vs. Teichmann. Lots of squirming and wiggle room is indeed
possible but a class reviewer, having had that game swim into his ken,
would have spotted it and pointed it out. The debates have gone beyond
thatnow, but I wager that TK with hindsight is sorry he omitted
reference to the flawed combination. Yes, Soltis should have spotted it
too.
I could go on and on. But where do we stand now?
TK has promised a response to my critique of his Nimzo review. So
far nobody has pointed out a single substantial mistake. Instead--
Keene is very rich
Keene needs the money
Keene writes too fast
Keene does too much
Keene is careless
The quality must suffer
An amazing litany of smears and unproved assertions! Hot air and
whaffle.
I am winning this debate hands down, if I must say so myself. Not
with bluster, but by dealing with each issue as it arises. I have one
advantage over the ratpackers. They desperately must prove their
infallibility, a trait inherited from their guru Edward Winter, who
finds it hard to admit he ever makes a mistake. His insulting letter to
IM Anthony Saidy. who pointed one out, is a case in point.
When I am wrong, I say so. Typos have been found. I prefer to know
and correct them in the next edition, if possible.
Finally, best wishes and thanks to all those who criticised me or
wrote positively on my behalf.
-- GM Ray Keene