On Nov 10, 5:23 pm, " wrote:
EVANS ON CHESS, CHESS LIFE, DECEMBER 2004 (page 42)

BOTVINNIK AND KERES (Cont.)

GM Raymond Keene
London, England

Q. Last May a reader cited Harry Golombek's WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP
1948. It was reissued in 2002 as part of a series of classic chess
books (www.hardingesimpole.co.uk) and I wrote the jacket blurb:

'The author of this book was on the spot throughout and at the very
epicentre of all the action.'

Another example of Parr's, Evans', and Keene's frequent factual
errors. As pointed out he

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter03.html

Golombek himself made very clear he did *_not_* go to Moscow in 1948
and therefore was *_not_* "on the spot throughout." To quote Chess
Notes #3482 in full:

Regarding Harry Golombek's book on the 1948 world championship match-
tournament in The Hague and Moscow, the following untrue statement is
quoted on page 42 of the December 2004 Chess Life:

'The author of this book was on the spot throughout and at the very
epicenter of all the action.'

In reality, Golombek was not present in Moscow at all, as he explained
in his introduction to the 1982 BCM edition of the book:

'The time came when the event moved off to Moscow. I endeavoured to
follow the big group of Dutch and Russian chess masters and officials
but was unable to gain a visa. [H.G. then gave further details.]

So I had to be content with studying the games of the Russian section
of the tournament in the Soviet bulletins. Fortunately, these were
very well annotated and there were also quite elaborate descriptions
of the playing hall and the various circumstances that attend a great
tournament.'

** end Chess Notes excerpt **

All we have here is another example of Keene's habitual
carelessness and failure to check the facts, said gaffe then being
eagerly accepted and quoted by Parr and Evans because it suits their
rhetorical purposes.