Unnatural acts: chess, paedophilia and Brian Eley
The summary exposé in TheArticle by that ethereal poetess, Fiona Pitt Kethley, of the Jimmy Savile of the chess world, the late Brian Eley, deserves a response from the chess community. Fiona is obviously an expert in the case. She is also married to Grandmaster James Plaskett: once, if only briefly, a target of Eley’s grooming manoeuvres.
I did, however, know Eley and even played against him three times. On one of these occasions, Eley escaped my chessboard clutches and secured a draw which, mirabile dictu, paved the way for him to win the 1972 British chess championship at Brighton.
Eley has variously been described as of “master” strength. A grandmaster he most certainly was not. But although he never completed the full credentials for qualification as a recognised World Chess Federation (FIDÉ) International Master, he was clearly on the cusp. His victims included the grandmaster and Czech dissident, Ludek Pachman, as well as several British champions: Peter Lee, Robert Bellin, Jonathan Mestel, Jonathan Penrose and Michael Haygarth.
Fiona is puzzled that a long-exposed homosexual pederast, wanted by Interpol, should have eluded justice for so long. He even succeeded in fleeing to Amsterdam, where he at first assumed the false name of “Ray”.
I wonder if this was some kind of back-handed thank you to me for having carelessly permitted him to escape in 1972 and win the British Championship. Later Eley switched to “David” — perhaps a reference to David Anderton, the British Chess Federation officer who had the power to authorise action against Eley.
I once asked Anderton why he had taken no action. His excuse was that if the complainants withdrew or were reluctant to bear witness in court, then the British Chess Federation could have been bankrupted by a massive legal action for libel. As Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar: Cowards die many times before their deaths, The valiant never taste of death but once.
Fiona relates that her husband put it to Anderton that he might have felt differently had his own ten year old son been molested by Eley. That argument fell on stony ground, since Anderton had no children.
Fiona also relates that the result of Eley’s unfettered depredations on his multiple victims led to madness and suicide. Once again resorting to Shakespeare, one might speak of carnal, bloody and unnatural acts, of accidental judgements, casual slaughters, of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause…
I first encountered Eley in the 1964 British Junior Championship at Whitby. He cut a strange figure, dressed in biker’s leathers with a black helmet, which he smashed down by the side of the board. I thought at the time that he looked much older than eighteen. Eley made all his moves with the same energy with which he had deposited his helmet, and every move came instantly, powered out with machine-gun speed. Until, that is, we reached the following position:
Ray Keene v Brian Eley
British Junior Championship (1964), Whitby, rd 6
Position after Black’s 45th
I now took great pleasure in delivering execution:
46 Rxg6+ hxg6 47 Rxg6+ Kh8 48 Nf7+ Kh7 49 Rg7 checkmate
Fiona has written in even greater depth about Eley here, on Patreon.com. Here is her concluding peroration, which I am sure she will be delighted to share with the widest possible audience:
“Nobody else wanted to write this story which is why I am putting it out here. I would like to ask a favour of his many victims. Go to the police. Tell them what happened to you if you haven’t done so already. Put it all on record. Let the police and the ECF and perhaps eventually the general public find the size of this story. For those who have made witness statements already, ask South Yorks police about the case. You as victims may have some right to info that I do not have as a mere journalist. I will also ask a politician to look into the situation of why the police did not pick him up and why his name was taken off the Interpol Wanted list. It is important that other paedophiles are not given a free pass just because they have been useful in other matters to the authorities. Their victims deserve better.”
Finally, Fiona speculates that Eley’s seemingly charmed life, eluding justice for decades in both the UK and the Netherlands, might have been grounded in some special dispensation. Might he have been operating as an informer, spy or myrmidon in some form, for MI6 or related intelligence agency? To me this seems implausible. I think that cock-up and complacency, rather than conspiracy, are the root cause of the failure to apprehend such a notorious malefactor. As Sigmund Freud said, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar — though in Eley’s case, one cannot be 100 per cent sure.
Raymond Keene’s latest book “Fifty Shades of Ray: Chess in the year of the Coronavirus”, containing some of his best pieces from TheArticle, is now available from Blackwell’s . His 206th book, Chess in the Year of the King, with a foreword by TheArticle contributor Patrick Heren, and written in collaboration with former Reuters chess correspondent, Adam Black, is in preparation, hopefully to be ready for publication in time for Christmas.
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