Looks familiar

There's nothing quite so familiar as an old friend - and no old friend quite so familiar as Ray Keene, to whom familiarity is as much a way of life as it is to a witch's cat. There is often something familiar about his work: and while familiarising myself with his Chessville profile just yesterday, I found myself thinking....that seems familiar.

After a while I realised that this was because I had recently been reading Ray's Wikipedia entry which currently includes, for instance, the following passage:

Keene's playing style tended toward the strategically original and positional. Preferring hypermodern openings such as the Modern Defence, he introduced a few interesting novelties. His style of play was strongly influenced by Aron Nimzowitsch, and thus his adoption of Indian-type openings and positions (the Nimzo-Indian Defence, the King's Indian Defence) and the Modern Defence with black.

This is not, as it happens, entirely unlike a passage in the Chessville profile:

Keene's playing style tended toward to [sic - ejh] strategically original and positional. Favouring hypermodern openings such as the Modern Defence, his style of play was strongly influenced by Nimzowitsch, and thus his adoption of Indian-type openings and positions (including the Nimzo-Indian Defence and the King's Indian Defence).

There's a couple of changes and the introduction of a grammatical error, but other than that, we're looking at pretty much the same thing.

Well I never.

Naturally this discovery caused me to look a little closer not just at the current Wikipedia entry but at its history since certain other passages in the profile also seemed familiar to me although they didn't appear in the current entry.

Now Ray's Wikipedia entry has been altered hundreds of times and searching through all the edits is more than I have the time or the will to do, but guided by the information that Ray began writing for Chessville round about July 2006, I selected the version that was current as of 9 June 2006 (the next edit was in August) and compared it with the profile. Taking it from the top:

Raymond Dennis Keene (b. 29 January 1948) is an influential figure in the chess world off the board, bringing many notable chess events to London. He is also the author of a significant number of chess books, including a well respected treatise on Nimzowitsch titled Aron Nimzowitsch: A Reappraisal, and a chess book claimed to have been authored over a weekend! (Chessville profile)

Raymond Dennis Keene (born 29 January 1948) is an influential figure in the chess world off the board, bringing many notable chess events to London. He is also the author of a significant number of chess books, including a well respected treatise on Nimzowitsch titled Aron Nimzowitsch: A Reappraisal, and a chess book claimed to have been authored over a weekend! (Wikipedia entry)

Educated at Dulwich College and Trinity College, Cambridge (where he studied modern languages), Keene rose to prominence in the chess scene in the early seventies. He won the British Chess Championship at Blackpool in 1971. At that time the UK had no GMs, and its best known player was the highly respected Jonathan Penrose (who famously beat Mikhail Tal in 1960). Keene was part of the first group of British players to achieve the necessary norms to become a GM - beaten to the finish line in 1976 by Tony Miles for the title of first British GM. (Chessville)

After education at Dulwich College and Trinity College, Cambridge (where he studied modern languages), Keene rose to prominence in the chess scene in the early seventies. He won the British Chess Championship at Blackpool in 1971. At that time the UK had no Grandmaster chess players, and its best known player was the highly respected Jonathan Penrose (who famously beat Mikhail Tal in 1960). Keene was one of the first group of British players to achieve the necessary norms to become a Grandmaster - being pipped to the post by Tony Miles (Anthony John Miles - deceased 2001) to the title of first British Grandmaster in 1976. (Wikipedia)

Keene's playing style tended toward to strategically original and positional. Favouring hypermodern openings such as the Modern Defence, his style of play was strongly influenced by Nimzowitsch, and thus his adoption of Indian-type openings and positions (including the Nimzo-Indian Defence and the King's Indian Defence). (Chessville)

Keene's playing style tended toward the strategically original and positional. Favouring hypermodern openings such as the Modern Defence, he introduced a few interesting novelties. His style of play was strongly influenced by Nimzowitsch, and thus his adoption of Indian-type openings and positions (especially the Nimzo-Indian defence and the King's Indian Defence). As a player, Keene had some success in Europe and on the local tournament circuit. (Wikipedia)

However, it is not as a player Keene is best known. His contributions to the organizational side of chess contrast with the mire of politicking and back-biting that sometimes overshadowed his successes. Keene is also responsible for a number of significant chess events (Chessville)

However, it is not as a player Keene is best known, but as a chess activist (possibly politician is a more accurate reflection). His contributions to the organisational side of chess contrast with the mire of politicking and back-biting that overshadowed his successes. His on-going "war" with individuals within the English Chess Federation and past friends gain much press attention.

Keene is responsible for many notable chess events(Wikipedia)

• Keene was Viktor Korchnoi's second during his World Championship match against Anatoly Karpov in Baguio City, Philippines, 1978.Keene brought Viktor Korchnoi and Garry Kasparov together for the famous 1983 Candidates semi-final match in London. This match was a pivotal moment in Kasparov's march to the World Championship.
• Keene arranged for the first half of the 1986 World Championship return match between Kasparov and Karpov to be played in London.
• Keene was the instrumental force behind 'Brain Games', which organised the Kasparov vs Vladimir Kramnik match. (Chessville)

• He was Viktor Korchnoi's second during his World Chess Championship match against Anatoly Karpov in Manila 1978 - the match that brought hypnotism, mirrored glasses and yogurt as headline items in the spy-vs-spy encounter very thematic of the cold war period.
• He brought Viktor Korchnoi and Garry Kasparov together for the famous 1983 Candidates semi-final match in London. Kasparov had defaulted the original match, which had been scheduled for Los Angeles. This allowed Kasparov to go on and win the World Championship in 1985.
• He arranged for the first half of the 1986 World Championship return match between Kasparov and Karpov to be played in London.
• After years in the wilderness outside of FIDE, Keene was the instrumental force behind 'Brain Games', which organised the Kasparov vs Vladimir Kramnik match which resulted in the former losing his title. His involvement with Brain Games has attracted some controversy, with alleged financial irregularities highlighted repeatedly in Private Eye. (Wikipedia)
  

Keene remains the chess correspondent of The Times newspaper, and The Spectator magazine, as well as the International Herald Tribune, and will probably remain influential in the chess world for the years to come.

Keene occasionally appears on television, most notably as main presenter of Duels Of The Mind, a series which aired on the UK ITV network. (Chessville)

Keene remains the chess correspondent of The Times newspaper, and will probably remain influential in the chess world for the years to come. He is at times criticised for distorting the facts, such as incorrectly calling a Woman International Master a Grandmaster in June 2006.

He is also known as "The Penguin", because of his physical resemblance to the bird, and as a comparison to Batman's nemesis - amusingly, one of his publishers is Penguin Books.

Keene often sports a bow tie at public events.

Keene occasionally appears on television, most notably as main presenter of Duels Of The Mind, a series which aired on the UK ITV network. In the series Keene, along with South African author and civil rights campaigner Donald Woods, discussed and analysed what were, in his opinion, the twelve best games of chess.

Raymond Keene is active member of the www.chessgames.com chess database and community, he has also written an extensive catologue of books. (Wikipedia)

The last segment is, at least, substantially different in some respects.

There are quite a few alterations and deletions, largely to Ray's advantage, so it can't be said that anybody has simply copied thoughtlessly from Wikipedia into Chessville. Nor can it be said that they have not copied at all.

There is nothing in the profile that acknowledges Wikipedia as a source or attributes any part of it to them (their policy on the subject is here) but then again, nor is the piece itself attributed to any author.

I wonder whether Chessville adapted it themselves or whether somebody else created it for them. Perhaps I shall ask them. Copying is the sincerest form of flattery, so if perhaps the author were to be our old familiar friend - though of course that's hard to believe - who better to be copied by than the British chess community's most able flatterer?

[Ray Keene index]