David Howell (chess player)

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David Howell

Full name	David Wei Ling Howell
Country	England
Born	November 14, 1990 (1990-11-14) (age 17) Eastbourne, England, UK

Title	Grandmaster (GM)


FIDE rating	2533
Peak rating	2533 (April 2008)

For other persons named David Howell, see David Howell (disambiguation).

David Wei Ling Howell (born November 14, 1990^[1]) is an English chess player. He is the youngest chess Grandmaster in the United Kingdom, a title he earned when he came second during the 35th Rilton Cup in Stockholm on 5 January 2007^[2] when he was 16; the previous record holder, Luke McShane was six months older when he became grandmaster.^[3]

1 Early life
2 Chess career
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Early life

Howell was born in Eastbourne to Angeline (originally from Singapore) and Martin Howell. He has a younger sister, Julia and the family live together in Seaford, East Sussex. He has been playing chess since the age of five years and eight months, following his father's purchase of a second-hand set at a jumble sale. He is currently studying for his French, German and Maths A-levels at Eastbourne College.^[4]

[edit] Chess career

Howell has been playing chess since the age of five years and eight months, when he quickly learned to defeat his father following the purchase of a second-hand chess set at a jumble sale. He soon came to the attention of the Sussex Junior Chess Association, and received training from a number of established adult Sussex chess players. He has been the British Under-8, Under-9 and Under-10 chess champion and now plays mostly in open adult chess tournaments, unless he is representing England in the World and European Junior Chess Championships. His training with GM Glenn Flear is sponsored by JEB (Hove) Ltd, the software developer responsible for the BITEM event management website.

In August 1999, Howell became famous internationally when he broke the world record for the youngest player to have defeated a Grandmaster in an official game. He defeated GM John Nunn in a blitz game at the Mind Sports Olympiad. David still holds this record. He is also the youngest player in the world to have qualified to compete in a national chess championship, taking part in the British Chess Championship in August 2000. He came fourth in the Player of the Year ballot held by the British Chess Federation during 2000.

In 2001, Howell came joint first in the European Under-12 Chess Championship and joint second in the World Under-12 Championship. In the Hastings Challengers tournament in January 2001, Howell became the youngest ever British player to defeat a grandmaster in classical chess when he beat GM Colin McNab.^[5]

In March 2002, Howell drew the last of four games with the Einstein Group World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik, becoming the youngest player in the world to score against a reigning world chess champion in an organised chess match. The resulting publicity led to articles in all the main British national newspapers and appearances on CBBC, Channel 4 News, and Richard & Judy. He has appeared on Breakfast TV, Blue Peter, Nickelodeon, Good Morning America, and several local news programmes.