William Roland Hartston (born 12 August 1947) is an English journalist who has written the

Beachcomber A beachcomber is a person who practices beachcombing. Beachcomber or Beachcombers may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''The Beachcomber'' (1915 film), an American drama * ''The Beachcomber'' (1938 film), starring Charles Laughton and a ...

column in the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first ...

'' since 1998. He is also a

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

player who played competitively from 1962 to 1987 and earned a highest

Elo rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess or esports. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American chess master and physics professor. The Elo system wa ...

of 2485. He was awarded the title

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

in 1972, but is now best known as a chess author and presenter of the game on television.

Biography

Hartston was born in

Willesden Willesden () is an area of north-west London, situated 5 miles (8 km) north-west of Charing Cross. It is historically a parish in the county of Middlesex that was incorporated as the Municipal Borough of Willesden in 1933; it has formed ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

, England, and attended the

City of London School The City of London School, also known as CLS and City, is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school for Single-sex education, boys in the City of London, England, on the banks of the River Thames next to the Millennium Bridge, ...

before studying Mathematics at

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Jesus College was established in 1496 on the site of the twelfth-century Benedictine nunnery of St Radegund's Priory, Cambridge, St ...

. At the 19th

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in FIDE Onli ...

, held at

Siegen Siegen () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany, in the south Westphalian part of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located in the district of Siegen-Wittgenstein in the Arnsberg (region), Arnsberg region. The university town (n ...

1970, he won the gold medal for best score on board 3 (78.1%). He won the

British Chess Championship The British Chess Championships are organised by the English Chess Federation. The main tournament incorporates the British Championship, the English Chess Championships and the British Women's Chess Championship so it is possible, although it ha ...

in 1973 and 1975. In international competition, he had many strong performances but failed, by the smallest possible margin, to achieve the results required for the title of

International Grandmaster Grandmaster (GM) is a Chess title, title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Chess Championship, World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is hel ...

. Hartston became the first person to stack the pieces from an entire chess set on top of a single white

rook Rook or rooks may refer to: Games *Rook (chess), a piece in chess that moves horizontally and vertically * Rook (card game), a trick-taking card game People, characters, individuals *a rookie, a rook * Russell Rook, Baron Rook (The Lord Rook; 21 ...

. He studied mathematics at

but did not complete his PhD on

number theory Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic functions. Number theorists study prime numbers as well as the properties of mathematical objects constructed from integers (for example ...

as he spent too much time playing chess. From the early 1970s, Hartston made many TV appearances for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, usually in the role of expert commentator and analyst on world title matches, including Fischer-Spassky '72, Karpov-Korchnoi '78, Kasparov-Short '93 and Kasparov-Anand '95. On December 7, 1990, he was featured in an experimental interactive

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

broadcast called ''Your Move'', which was hosted by

Rob Curling Rob Curling (born 8 September 1957, in Kuala Lumpur, Federation of Malaya, Malaya) is a British television presenter and journalist. He presents the sport for Sky News. He also fronts the tennis coverage for British Eurosport. Up to and includin ...

and featured grandmaster

Jon Speelman Jonathan Simon Speelman (born 2 October 1956) is an English chess grandmaster and author. Early life and education Jonathan Simon Speelman was born on 2 October 1956 in Marylebone, London. He was educated at St Paul's School, London, and Worcest ...

. In the groundbreaking one-off episode, Speelman was pitted against the audience, who would use a special telephone line to submit their moves, with the move played by the viewers being decided by a democratic vote. Speelman won the match, although the viewers put up a good fight. The broadcast went for approximately three hours, about double the time that it had been scheduled for. He twice won the BBC's ''

The Master Game ''The Master Game'' is a BBC production of televised chess tournaments that ran for eight series on BBC2 from 1976 to 1983. Presented by Jeremy James (presenter), Jeremy James with expert analysis from Leonard Barden and, later, Bill Hartston, ...

'' competition before taking over from

Leonard Barden Leonard William Barden (born 20 August 1929, in South Croydon, London) is an English chess master, writer, broadcaster, journalist, organizer and promoter. The son of a dustman, he was educated at Whitgift School, South Croydon, and Balliol ...

as its resident expert. During the 1980s he presented the BBC series ''Play Chess''. In recent years he has diversified into a number of creative areas, running competitions in creative thinking for ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' newspaper and the

Mind Sports Olympiad The Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO) is an annual international multi-sport event, multi-disciplined competition and festival for game of skill, games of mental skill and mind sports by Mind Sports Organisation. The inaugural event was held in 1997 i ...

. Since January 1996 he has written the off-beat

column for the ''

'' and has also written books on chess, mathematics, humour and trivia. He has also been a regular guest on the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

and occasional TV programme, ''

Puzzle Panel {{Use dmy dates, date=July 2014 ''Puzzle Panel'' was a light-hearted, though cerebral BBC Radio 4 panel game that was broadcast between 1998 and 2005. An additional series was broadcast over the winter-spring of 2011, and a further series was broad ...

'' and appeared in Series 8 of ''

The Museum of Curiosity ''The Museum of Curiosity'' is a comedy talk show on BBC Radio 4 that was first broadcast on 20 February 2008. It is hosted by John Lloyd (producer), John Lloyd (Professor of Ignorance at the University of Buckingham, and later at Solent Unive ...

'' also on Radio 4. Aside from his chess and media-related activities, Hartston is a mathematician and industrial psychologist. During the 1980s, he was recruited by

Meredith Belbin Raymond Meredith Belbin (4 June 1926 – 6 March 2025) was a British researcher and management consultant best known for his work on management teams. He was a visiting professor and Honorary Fellow of Henley Management College in Oxfordshire, ...

, at the Industrial Training Research Unit in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, to research the dynamics of teams. While continuing to write the Beachcomber column and other features for the ''Daily Express'', he was also behind the launching of the now defunct ''wakkipedia.com'' Internet site of useless information. His latest publication is ''A Brief History of Puzzles: 120 of the World's Most Baffling Brainteasers from the Sphinx to Sudoku'' (2019). On 2 April 2013 it was reported that Hartston had "perfected" a formula for predicting the winner of the

Grand National The Grand National is a National Hunt horse race held annually at Aintree Racecourse in Aintree, Merseyside, England. First run in 1839, it ...

horse race, in a study commissioned by bookmaker William Hill. The story of the winning formula has since been widely thought to be an

April Fools April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day (rarely called All Fools' Day) is an annual custom on the 1st of April consisting of practical jokes, hoaxes, and pranks. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fool " at the recipient. Mas ...

joke for which many have fallen. In 2013 Hartston and his friend Josef Kollar became regular 'viewers' on the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

programme ''

Gogglebox ''Gogglebox'' is a British reality television series created by Stephen Lambert, Tania Alexander and Tim Harcourt, and broadcast on Channel 4. The series documents families and groups of friends around the United Kingdom who are filmed for the ...

''. In 2023 his book ''Knock, knock! In pursuit of a grand unified theory of humour'' was published by Watkins Media.

Personal life

Hartston was the first of three British chess champions to be married to

Woman Grandmaster FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

Jana Bellin Jana Bellin (''née'' Malypetrová; born 9 December 1947) is a British, formerly Czechoslovak chess player. She was awarded the Woman International Master chess title in 1969 and the Woman Grandmaster title in 1982. Bellin was born in Prague, C ...

(née Malypetrova) (January 1970 in Cambridge). With his second wife, Elizabeth Bannerman (1978) he has two sons, James and Nicholas.

Bibliography

*''The Grunfeld Defence'' (1971), B. T. Batsford *''The King's Indian Defence'' (1973) ( L. Barden, with W. Hartston and R. Keene), B. T. Batsford *''Karpov-Korchnoi, 1974'' (1977) (W. Hartston and R. Keene), Tony Earl Books, *''The Benoni'' (1977), Batsford, *
How to Cheat at Chess: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Chess, But Were Afraid to Ask
'. United Kingdom: Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd. 1st ed. - 1976; 2nd ed. - 1994 *''The Battle of Baguio City: Karpov-Korchnoi 1978'' (1978) *''Penguin Book of Chess Openings'' (1978) *''Soft Pawn: The Uncensored Sequel'' (1980) *''London 1980: Phillips and Drew Kings Chess Tournament'' (1980) (with

Stewart Reuben Stewart Reuben (14 March 1939 – 4 February 2025) was a British chess player, organiser, arbiter and author. He was also a professional poker player, has been called "one of Britain's foremost poker players" and "one of the best two or three p ...

) *''Teach Yourself Chess'' (c. 1980, later editions 1992, 1997) *''Psychology of Chess'' (1984) (W. Hartston and P. C. Wason),

Facts on File Infobase is an American publishing company, publisher of databases, reference book titles and textbooks geared towards the North American library, secondary school, and university-level curriculum markets. Infobase operates a number of prominent ...

, *''The Ultimate Irrelevant Encyclopaedia'' (1984) *''The Kings of Chess'' (1985) *''

Chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

- The Making of the Musical'' (1986) (Hartston and

Tim Rice Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice (born 10 November 1944) is an English songwriter. He is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote, among other shows, '' Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'', ''Jesus C ...

), Pavilion Books, *''Drunken Goldfish and Other Irrelevant Scientific Research'' (1988) *''How was it for you, Professor?'' (1992) *''The Guinness Book of Chess Grandmasters'' (1996) *''Teach Yourself Better Chess'' (1997) *''The Book of Numbers: The Ultimate Compendium of Facts About Figures'' (2000) *''What Are the Chances of That?'' (2004) *''What's What - The Encyclopedia of Quite Extraordinary Information'' (2005) *''The Encyclopedia of Useless Information'' (2007) *''The Things That Nobody Knows'' (2011) *''Even More Things That Nobody Knows'' (2015)

Allen & Unwin George Allen & Unwin was a British publishing company formed in 1911 when Sir Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in George Allen & Co. It became one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century and established an Australian ...

, *''Sloths'' (2019) *''A Brief History of Puzzles: 120 of the World's Most Baffling Brainteasers from the Sphinx to Sudoku" (2019) *''The Encyclopaedia of Everything Else'' (2022) *''Knock, knock! In pursuit of a grand unified theory of humour'' (2023) Watkins Media Hartston has also written various technical chess books under his full name of William R. Hartston or William Roland Hartston.

Notes

External links

* *
"William Hartston" by Edward Winter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartston, William 1947 births Living people Sportspeople from the London Borough of Brent British chess players Jewish chess players Chess International Masters British non-fiction writers English chess writers English male writers Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge English chess players Male non-fiction writers People from Willesden Chess Olympiad competitors