Jonathan Hawkins (born 1 May 1983) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

grandmaster. He was the

British Chess Champion 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 has ...

in 2015, having outscored David Howell, with whom he shared the title in 2014.

Chess career

Hawkins's chess career is unusual for the modern era in that he showed only modest ability as a child; his improvement from club player to

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 (chess), Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combinatio ...

took place after he left full-time education, and while living in County Durham, far from traditional centres of chess activity. About this sudden rise through the rankings, in his 2012

endgame Endgame, Endgames, End Game, End Games, or similar variations may refer to: Film * ''The End of the Game'' (1919 film) * ''The End of the Game'' (1975 film), short documentary U.S. film * ''Endgame'' (1983 film), 1983 Italian post-apocalyptic f ...

book ''Amateur to IM'', he notes that "a careful study of the endgame sparked the biggest leap forward in my own game". As well as his double British championship titles, tournament wins by Hawkins include the

British Rapidplay Chess Championships The British Rapidplay Chess Championships was a rapid play chess congress held in the UK annually since 1986 (with the exception of 1993)until. Dec 20th 2022.It was under the auspices of the English Chess Federation. but never was funded underwr ...

in 2012 and 2014, making him the British champion at both standard and

rapid Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade ...

time limits. In 2013 he tied for first place in the 18th

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Open with Stanislav Novikov, Batuhan Dastan,

Hagen Poetsch Hagen () is the 41st-largest city in Germany. The municipality is located in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the south eastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne and Volme (met by t ...

, Alexey Kim,

Ralf Åkesson Ralf Åkesson (born 8 February 1961) is a Swedish chess player. He was awarded by FIDE the titles of International Master (IM) in 1981 and Grandmaster (GM) in 1995, and by ICCF the title of Senior International Correspondence Master (SIM) in 20 ...

and Kacper Drozdowski. Hawkins was part of the English contingent at the rapidplay tournament of the 2014

London Chess Classic The London Chess Classic is a chess festival held at the Olympia Conference Centre, West Kensington, London. The flagship event is a strong invitational tournament between some of the world's top grandmasters. A number of subsidiary events cove ...

. His game against former

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Vladimir Kramnik Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (russian: Влади́мир Бори́сович Кра́мник; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Ch ...

at that event was notable for its simultaneous attacks against both castled kings, and for the "exquisite

Zugzwang Zugzwang (German for "compulsion to move", ) is a situation found in chess and other turn-based games wherein one player is put at a disadvantage because of their obligation to make a move; a player is said to be "in zugzwang" when any legal mov ...

" to which Hawkins succumbed. Hawkins attained the

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

titles of

FIDE 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 ...

(FM) in 2008, International Master (IM) in 2010 and Grandmaster (GM) in 2014. His ascent from IM to GM was delayed two years by a lack of results against non-English players. This meant he became one of the highest-rated IMs in the world, outranking the majority of English GMs, and was the first winner of the British Championship since Michael Hennigan in 1993 who had not earned the GM title by the end of the tournament. Hawkins is now a full-time chess player and coach, based in London.

Publications

* From Amateur to IM (2012)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hawkins, Jonathan 1983 births Living people English chess players Chess grandmasters British chess writers Sportspeople from Consett