"Rejoice, for issue number 40 of Kingpin is out ...."
Or so said my friend and fellow blogger EJH a couple of Fridays ago, although not that out as it transpired. In the week that followed I visited both branches of Chess and Bridge only to find that they were yet to receive any supplies from the publisher. Fortunately when I went back to Baker Street this Tuesday I finally got my mitts on a copy. I had a good read, enjoyed it immensely, then got on with my life.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that we had been sent an open letter from Ida Eddis Foster concerning that self-same 40th edition of Kingpin. "Dear Chess World" Eddis Foster begins, displaying a touching, if deeply erroneous, faith in the proportion of the planet's chessers who are wont to drop by our humble blog. S/he continues ... well, why don't I just show you the letter (with the disclaimer that the views expressed below are Mr./Ms. Eddis Foster's and not necessarily our own):-
Dear Chess World,
Shocked is scarcely the word for my reaction to issue 40 of Kingpin magazine. Reading the detailed article about Ray Keene, "Machiavelli on Ice", anyone would conclude that such a man merits no place at all in the chess world.
It was bad enough when the previous issue uncharitably put Ray's writing under the spotlight for 15 pages, together with some dark hints about his financial dealings. There should be a law against such things.
And now 13 more pages about what supposedly happened to investors' millions, and another unseemly charge of plagiarism, as if anybody cared. The heading contains a word not even in my dictionary, "Grandfraudster", and I regard this shambles with total disgust. Nobody's interested in such exposés, however much "documentary evidence" Kingpin finds to put on its website http://www.kingpinchess.net/category/penguin-files/.
Enough is enough, and ideally Kingpin should be banned (or burned - or both). Failing that, I urge Ray's supporters, as well as all right-thinking chess-lovers, to:
1) Tell the Editor of Kingpin what he can do with copies of his magazine. The address is: kingpinchess@yahoo.com.
2) Write to the Editors of The Times and The Spectator, expressing dismay at the precise accusations against their chess correspondent and telling them they look ridiculous.
3) Send congratulatory messages to the British Chess Magazine and CHESS for steadfastly defending Ray's interests, by omission and/or commission.
4) Persuade leading officials of the English Chess Federation to make Ray the Finance Director, with unfettered powers.
5) Swamp chessgames.com with messages summarizing the attacks on him, so that Ray can respond at a safe site where, mercifully, there are still people who look up to him.
Please act now because Ray really needs help.
Yours truly,
Ida Eddis Foster
Newtown
Rochester
2 December 2009
We thank Mr./Ms. Eddis Foster for his/her letter and take the liberty of providing some links that may prove useful to our readers.
Kingpin
The Times
The Spectator
BCM
CHESS (via the Chess & Bridge shop)
English Chess Federation
www.chessgames.com
6 comments:
For anyone not in on the joke, 'Ida Eddis Foster Newtown Rochester' is an anagram of 'Edward Winter Editor of Chess Notes'.
Should I be embarrassed to say that I was amongst those "not in on the joke" until after this post was written (when Morgan told me).
I'm not sure I'm entirely surprised though.
The article itself is a very interesting read and, like Kingpin 40 as a whole, it gets two thumbs up from me.
I would be most interested to hear RDK's response to the material contained in the Kingpin article should he ever give one.
People who've read my piece in Kingpin 40 will have seen that I wrote twice to the Spectator over the Winter plagiarism that appeared in its pages.
In fact, the total is now three, since subsequent to my piece being written, but prior to publication, the magazine had a change of editorship and I took the opportunity to write to the new editor to ask him about the scandal.
The result was the same: I received neither acknowledgement nor reply.
The one thing I would say about KP40 is that I feel it's a shame the Keene article does not come with a clear statement as to who wrote it. Not an essential point but I'd like to have known.
= JB
Yeah! rite! Y the pseudonym?
Mrs. Bafhlim
Tooting.
Is Malcolm Pein going to be the new Raymond Keene for the 2010's?
Post a Comment