Simon Webb (10 June 1949 – 14 March 2005) was a British

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 and writer who held the chess titles of

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 ...

and Correspondence Chess Grandmaster. Born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, he was joint British under-18 champion in 1966, and fourth in the European Junior Championship in 1969. Webb was briefly a professional player in the late 1970s, participated in a number of strong tournaments, and met some strong players, including a 17-year-old

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...

at the 1980 European Team Championship (Webb lost). At one event, he was assigned a lady translator. Webb married her and took her to England. He was joint second in the 1975 British Championship behind

William Hartston William Roland Hartston (born 12 August 1947) is an English journalist who has written the Beachcomber column in the ''Daily Express'' since 1998. He is also a chess player who played competitively from 1962 to 1987 and earned a highest Elo ra ...

. Perhaps his best tournament result was joint first with Liuben Spassov at Hamburg 1977, ahead of

István Csom István Csom (2 June 1940 – 28 July 2021) was a Hungarian chess player who held the FIDE titles of Grandmaster and International Arbiter. FIDE awarded him the International Master title in 1967 and the Grandmaster title in 1973. He was Hun ...

and Milan Matulović. He was famous for his ability to save or even win from hopelessly lost positions, which earned him the nickname "

Houdini Erik Weisz (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), known professionally as Harry Houdini ( ), was a Hungarian-American escapologist, illusionist, and stunt performer noted for his escape acts. Houdini first attracted notice in vaudeville in ...

". He became an

in 1977. His final

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

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 ...

was 2420. Webb took up

correspondence chess Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, traditionally through the postal system. Today it is usually played through a correspondence chess server, a public internet chess forum, or email. Less commo ...

in the early 1980s, and all but gave up over-the-board play for a long time. He gained the

International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster is a correspondence chess title created by FIDE in 1953, second only to that of world correspondence champion. Currently, this title is awarded by the International Correspondence Chess Federation (IC ...

title in 1983 and scored a number of impressive results. In the 14th World Correspondence Chess Championship, won by Tõnu Õim, Webb finished fifth of the 15 participants with 8.5/14. His final ICCF Elo rating was 2609. Webb was perhaps best known for his humorous book on practical tournament play, ''Chess for Tigers'' (Oxford University Press, 1978, ). As well as his chess achievements, he also represented England at

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

, partnered by his brother Roger. In the 1980s, Webb moved to Sweden. Since the late 1990s, he played in the Swedish team championship. On 14 March 2005, he was fatally stabbed in the family hallway by his 25-year-old son, Dennis. Dennis subsequently drove into a wall at some 130 km/hour but survived with a broken nose.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Webb, Simon 1949 births 2005 deaths Chess International Masters Correspondence chess grandmasters Chess players from London British non-fiction writers British chess writers British expatriate sportspeople in Sweden English murder victims British male writers 20th-century British chess players British male non-fiction writers