John Nunn World Champion

[Warren Kingston]

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6768
God damm English World Champion!!!

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

He's won it at least twice before.

[Joey Stewart]

I have never met him, or even seen him playing anywhere ( he seems to restrict his chess to the odd local tournament and problem solving these days) but he has the sort of face that makes you know he would be friendly.

[Arshad Ali]

I have never met him, or even seen him playing anywhere ( he seems to restrict his chess to the odd local tournament and problem solving these days) but he has the sort of face that makes you know he would be friendly.

I saw him at the King's Head Tournament back in '95 (or was it '96?). A friendly bloke.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

I bet he wouldn't seem so warm and cuddly if you'd been on the receiving end of this.

[Michael Jones]

I saw him once, at the Melody Amber tournament in 2008 when he was there as a photographer. Didn't get the time to stop and chat unfortunately.

[Stewart Reuben]

John Nunn 5 - Stewart Reuben 0. At least I never wasted a white on him.

[matt_ward]

I have played John Nunn before online and he's a very dangerous player, also he has played at Richmond before the rapidplay.

He's to intelligent to be a great chess player. To good at probably alot of other things.

Matt.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

A friend of mine beat him online (on playchess.com). Apparently the secret is to lose to him a few times first so that he thinks that you're no good.

The game can be found here: http://heinzk.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.html (search for "cheap internet win"). It was a neat trap which I've seen before but never pulled off myself.

Heinzkat's blog is one of the better ones that I read.

[John Saunders]

He's too intelligent to be a great chess player.

You may have set the bar a little high when defining a "great chess player". John Nunn was rated in the world's top ten during the late 1980s.

[matt_ward]

Oh apologises for this John Saunders.

What was his peak rating then?

matt.

[Justin Hadi]

I bet he wouldn't seem so warm and cuddly if you'd been on the receiving end of this.

I think that qualifies as a "shellacking".

[John Saunders]

I think it was something like 2630 but at a time (mid-1980s) when ratings had not inflated to the extent of today, hence not a very useful gauge of strength. World ranking gives a better idea of his strength. Jeff Sonas historical ratings website shows him at no.10 in the world in 1985 but on the official FIDE list of 1989 he was 9th (these are downloadable here). But, by anybody's standards, he was (and is) a great chess player.

[John Saunders]

In fact, John Nunn's historical ratings and world rankings can be found here at the inestimable Olimpbase website. Top rating 2630 and twice number 9 in the world.

[matt_ward]

Yes but in the 1980's there were not as many good players around!

I am still waiting for us to produce a World Champion.

Matt.