Predecessors IV: Capablanca-Alekhine 1927

On 15 April of this year, Ray Keene's chess column in the Times annotated the 21st game in the 1927 match for the World Championship between Capablanca and Alekhine. Here's the column, below.

On 19 May last year, Ray Keene's chess column in the Spectator, entitled Filately, annotated the 21st game in the 1927 match for the World Championship between Capablanca and Alekhine. Here's the column, below.

They bear, you may feel, certain similarities. Certain close similarities.

But relax! On this occasion the Times piece is not directly plagiarised from the Spectator piece. Come to that, the Spectator piece is not plagiarised from the Times.

Dear me no. They're both plagiarised from somewhere else.

In Part One of My Great Predecessors (Everyman, 2003, as you probably know by now) the twenty-first game of Alekhine-Capablanca appears on pages 394 to 397.

Once again, we'll look at the game notes, in larger size than they appear in the reproductions above. In each instance we'll first look at the note from My Great Predecessors, then - where there's both - the note from the Spectator before the note from the Times, given that the Spectator notes came first. (First in relation to the Times, at any rate.)

1. Black's move eleven.

My Great Predecessors:

This move is not annotated in the Spectator. In the Times, the note is very brief:

A little echo of "more accurate", but little enough so far, you might say. Let's see what happens next.

2. White's move twelve.

My Great Predecessors:

Spectator:

Times:

Keeping "for a bind" after "White should have played" is a bit of a giveaway, but Ray does better in the Spectator, choosing "to constrict the Black position" instead. At this stage, in the Spectator at any rate, he's getting away with it, don't you think?

But then he throws it all away.

3. White's move fifteen.

My Great Predecessors:

Spectator:

There is no Times note for this move. As you see, the Spectator note is basically a photocopy.

4. Black's move seventeen.

My Great Predecessors:

Spectator:

Times:

Crude, you might say, is the word.

5. White's move twenty.

My Great Predecessors:

Spectator:

Times:

It's a long old note, but Ray plagiarises as much of it as he can. He also forgets to mention that Kasparov is - in the segment he steals - quoting Alekhine, who is therefore plagiarised.

6. Black's move twenty-one.

My Great Predecessors:

Spectator:

Times:

What is there to say?

7. Black's move twenty-four.

My Great Predecessors:

Spectator:

Mercifully, there is no Times note for this move, though what would one more plagiarism be among so many?

8. Black's move twenty-six.

My Great Predecessors:

Spectator:

Times:

By this time you may be thinking it ought to be the beginning of the end for Ray. We've been thinking that for years.

9. White's move thirty.

My Great Predecessors:

Spectator:

Times:

The "original" gags just write themselves.

10. White's move thirty-two.

My Great Predecessors:

Spectator:

There is no Times note here. Had there been one, no doubt it would have looked very much like both of the above.

But Capablanca has seen enough and frankly so have we.

11. White's resignation.

My Great Predecessors:

Spectator:

Times:

Hopeless. Pure, blatant, plagiarism in both periodicals. Unacceptable practice if you or I did it once. Astonishing that anybody should try to get away with it twice.Or many more times than twice.

Unless you have the right friends in the right places, perhaps.

[Thanks to Pablo Byrne and Angus French]

[Predecessors I]

[Predecessors II]

[Predecessors III]

[Ray Keene index]

[Ray Keene plagiarism index]