England has had a very wide influence on how chess is played. And in the period from 1984 to 1995, England was one of the strongest chess playing countries in the world, second only to the USSR. This was due to a number of individual stars:

Nigel Short

is England's best known player. Born in 1965, Nigel was a child prodigy who first came to national attention when he beat Jonathan Penrose, 10 times winner of the British Championship, when he was just 12 years old. Nigel's greatest success was winning against Anatoly Karpov (then of the USSR) who was a previous World Champion. This victory eventually led Nigel to a challenge against Garry Kasparov for the World Championship. Kasparov retained his title with some ease, but Nigel put up sterling resistance later in the match. He still retains a tremendous appetite for the game.

Michael Adams

(born 1971) has now been England's leading player for some years. He came within one move of beating Kasimzhanov for the World Championship title and reached the semifinals several times.

David Howell

(born 1990) is still a teenager and has a great deal of potential. Currently, he has decided to pursue a chess career rather than go to university.

Jon Speelman

(born 1956) was once number 4 in the world. Arguably he is England's most original player. He has a regular column in The Independent.

Tony Miles

became the first ever Grandmaster from the UK in 1976. Alas Tony died prematurely. When he sat down to play aginst the world's best, he did so with the intention of winning. It is this attitude which has permeated English chess and is part of his legacy.

Luke McShane

(born 1984) was an enormous talent. But he is only an occasional player now, having taken up a post with Goldman Sachs. He has a column in the Sunday Express and was almost certainly their youngest-ever newspaper columnist.

Stuart Conquest

(born 1967) is the current British champion and the English co-Champion.

Keith Arkell

(born 1961) is the other English co-Champion. He gave up chess temporarily but is now once again, a very frequent player on the chess circuit.

Dr John Nunn

(born 1955) has now retired and is a solver of chess problems and chess book publisher.

Julian Hodgson

(born 1963) is also retired and is a chess coach. He won three British championships, one with the record-breaking score of 10/11.

Matthew Sadler

(born 1974) retired even more prematurely. He was a mainstay of the English team when active.

Harriet Hunt

(born 1978) is our leading female player. Harriet now spends much of her time concentrating on being a research botanist.

Jovanka Houska

(born 1980) is our leading professional female player.

All the men listed above are grandmasters. There are 36 English GMs, out of about 1000 worldwide. Both women are international masters and also female grandmasters.