Wikipedia

Daniel King (chess player)

Daniel John King(born 28 August 1963) is an Englishchessgrandmaster,writer,coach,journalist and broadcaster.

Daniel King
Full nameDaniel John King
CountryEngland
Born(1963-08-28)28 August 1963(age 61)
Beckenham,England
TitleGrandmaster(1989)
FIDErating2466(February 2025)
Peak rating2560 (July 1990)
Peak rankingNo. 65 (July 1990)

Chess career

edit

King achieved theInternational Mastertitle in 1982 and theGrandmastertitle in 1989. He won minor tournaments around the world and recorded promising results at some prestigious events; for example, 4th= at Bern 1987, 4th=British Championship1987, 1st= (withBoris Gelfand) at the Sydney Open 1988, 5th= London 1988, 2nd= Dortmund 1988 and 2nd (afterBent Larsen) London 1989. At the Geneva Young Masters in 1990, he shared first place with the AustralianIan Rogers.

King later pursued a media career as presenter, commentator, reporter and analyst, and this likely affected his playing career by limiting the opportunity for dedicated research and study. Nevertheless, he has played professionally for more than 20 years at a high level, including the top leagues of theBundesligaand4NCL.In 1996, he won theBunrattyMasters, an Irish tournament with an impressive list of previous winners, includingJohn Nunn,Sergei TiviakovandPeter Svidler.

King represented England at theEuropean Team Chess Championship(Haifa 1989) and at the ReykjavikVisaChess Summit of 1990, the latter being the scene of a victory over the strong Soviet team and a team silver medal.[1]

King is usually known as 'Dan' or 'Danny'. He has coached some of the UK's brightest chess prospects and has written more than 15 chess books on topics ranging from the preparatoryWinning with the Najdorfto the self-tutoringHow Good is your Chess?andTest Your Chess.

Media interests

edit

He became well known nationally for his coverage of theWorld Chess Championship 1993,live from the Savoy in London, onChannel 4television. The programme, hosted byCarol Vorderman,contained expert commentary and analysis from King,Ray Keene,Jon SpeelmanandFritz,the chess-playing computer program. The show was popular, showing King to be a likeable, media-friendly personality. It was reported that he had become the choice of 'thinking women' across the UK, as they watched in large numbers, whether chess-literate or not. Television work continued to come his way and he contributed to three further world championships broadcast by theBBC,ESPN,Eurosport,STAR TV (Asia)and other networks.[2]He covered the controversialKasparov versus Deep Bluematch in 1997 and, for four months in 1999, provided dailyMSNcommentary on the high-profileKasparov versus The Worldgame. In October 2002, he was a key member of the elite analytical team engaged in the prominent 'man versus machine' contest,Brains in Bahrain.[2]

King was a games consultant for theCilla Black(ITV) showMoment of Truth.He scripted and presented two half-hour chess documentaries on radio and has, over many years, produced instructional chess videos and DVDs for GM Video andChessBase,among others. In the mid-1990s he appeared in the UK advertising campaign forAudi/Volkswagencars.

King writes regular columns inCHESS magazine( "How Good Is Your Chess?" ) andSchach 64,the leading journals of the UK and Germany (he speaks German fluently[3]). From 2006 to 2012, he co-hosted a regular Monday chess column withRonan BennettinThe Guardian,which sought to be instructive, rather than topical. Through test positions taken from actual games, their amateur and expert assessments of the possible continuations were discussed and compared.Nigel Short's column was axed to make way for the style-shift, and this change was debated in chess circles.[4]Since 2010, King has served as a main commentator/presenter atChessBaseand has hosted the commentary at theLondon Chess Classictournament. He runs the PowerPlayChess Youtube Channel which is regularly updated with new chess-related content including chess puzzles and analysis of high-level games. In 2016, chess historianEdward Winterranked him as one of the top six English-language internet chess commentators on major matches and tournaments.[5]He lives inTeddington,in theLondon Borough of Richmond upon Thames.

Selected bibliography

edit
  • King, Daniel (1997).Kasparov v. Deeper Blue: The Ultimate Man v. Machine Challenge.Batsford.ISBN0-7134-8322-9.
  • Kasparov, Garry; King, Daniel (2000).Kasparov Against the World: The Story of the Greatest Online Challenge.KasparovChess Online.ISBN0970481306.
  • King, Daniel (2002).Winning With the Najdorf.Sterling Pub Co Inc.ISBN0713470372.
  • King, Daniel (2003).How Good Is Your Chess?.Dover.ISBN048644676X.
  • King, Daniel (2009).How To Play Chess.Kingfisher.ISBN978-0753419182.

Notes

edit
  1. ^British Chess Magazine- May 1990 pp.178-182
  2. ^abKing, Daniel."Television".DanielKing.biz.Daniel King.Retrieved5 March2015.
  3. ^"Man spürt die Kampfeslust".Der Spiegel.10 November 2018.Retrieved12 November2018.
  4. ^"Nigel Short terminated – again".Chess News.Chessbase GmbH. 26 October 2006.Retrieved5 March2015.
  5. ^Winter, Edward."Chess Broadcasts on the Internet".ChessHistory.com.Edward Winter.Retrieved5 March2015.

References

edit
edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Daniel_King_(chess_player)&oldid=1270435009"