1998–2007: Chess prodigy to Grandmaster Howell has been playing chess since the age of five years and eight months, following his father's purchase of a second-hand
chess set at a
jumble sale. He quickly learned to defeat his father and soon came to the attention of the
Sussex Junior Chess Association, where he received tuition from a number of established county players. He progressed rapidly and became the British champion in the age categories Under 8, Under 9 and Under 10. In August 1999, Howell became famous internationally when he broke the world record for the youngest player to have defeated a
Grandmaster in an official game. Aged eight, he defeated
John Nunn in a
blitz game at the
Mind Sports Olympiad. Howell held this record until 2024. He was the youngest player in the world to have qualified to compete in a national chess championship, taking part in the
British Chess Championship in August 2000. He came fourth in the Player of the Year ballot held by the
British Chess Federation during 2000. In 2001, Howell came joint first at the
European Youth Chess Championships in the Under 12 category and joint second at the
World Youth Chess Championships in the same category. In the
Hastings Challengers tournament in January 2001, Howell became the youngest ever British player to defeat a grandmaster at classical
time controls when he beat
Colin McNab. In March 2002, Howell drew the last of four games with the Einstein Group World Champion,
Vladimir Kramnik, becoming the youngest player in the world to score against a reigning world chess champion in an organized chess match. The resulting publicity led to articles in all the main British national newspapers and appearances on
CBBC,
Channel 4 News, and
Richard & Judy. The extensive coverage he received as the UK's most gifted young chess player also spread to appearances on breakfast television,
Blue Peter,
Nickelodeon,
Good Morning America, and several local news programmes. At a televised awards show for Britain's most talented youngsters,
Patrick Moore presented an award to him. Progress was perhaps more measured during his early-to-mid-teens, but Howell continued to meet all the milestone challenges, first gaining the
International Master title, and culminating in becoming a grandmaster at the age of sixteen, the youngest ever in the UK. Along the way, he performed well at the
Hastings knockout-style tournament (2004–5 edition), where he was eliminated at the quarter-final (round 5) stage by the strong Polish GM
Bartosz Soćko. Despite his sustained efforts at chess, he continued to study for his French, German (fluent in both) and Mathematics
A-levels, at
Eastbourne College. He obtained the three
norms required for the title Grandmaster (GM) between 2004 and 2007; these comprised the
4NCL team tournament (season 2004/5), the CCA-ICC International at New York City 2005 and
Stockholm's Rilton Cup 2006/7. In this last tournament he tied for second place, qualifying for the grandmaster title on 5 January 2007, aged 16. By doing so, Howell broke
Luke McShane's record as the youngest grandmaster ever from the UK, set in 2000, by six months.
2007–present day: Tournament success and continued rating climb Since becoming a grandmaster in 2007, Howell has participated in a variety of competitions; he took a share of fourth place in the British championship that year and went on to scoop the
English Chess Federation's
Player of the Year Award. A significant rise in his
Elo rating followed his achievements of 2008, beginning with victory at the
Andorra Open, where he scored 8/9 points, ahead of experienced grandmasters
Julio Granda Zuñiga and
Mihail Marin. He followed this with a share of third place at the
World Junior Chess Championship in
Gaziantep, where he was always challenging for the lead. At the very strong
EU Individual Open Chess Championship in Liverpool he finished with a share of fifth place despite a loss on time and then went on to win the annual
Winterthur Masters event, ahead of other grandmasters, among them former Paraguayan champion
Axel Bachmann and former Swiss champions
Joseph Gallagher and
Florian Jenni. At the
Chess Olympiad of
2008, held in
Dresden, he joined the England team on board 3 and contributed 7½/11 for a tournament performance rating (TPR) of 2675. Howell was the
British Rapidplay Chess Champion in 2008 with a score of 10/11 points, and in 2009 with 9/11. He tied for first with
Andrei Istrățescu,
Romain Edouard and
Mark Hebden in the 2009/10
Hastings International Chess Congress. In August 2009, Howell won the British championship for the first time scoring 9/11. He placed third in the
London Chess Classic in December. He won the British Rapidplay Chess Championship again in 2010 with a score of 10½/11. In 2012 Howell won the
Leiden Chess Tournament. In August 2013 Howell won his second British championship title with 9½/11 points. The following year he shared first place with
Jonathan Hawkins in the 101st British Chess Championship. Howell took clear second place at the 2015
Gibraltar Masters tournament with a score of 8/10, half-point behind
Hikaru Nakamura. In December 2015, Howell won the inaugural British Knockout Championship, held alongside the 7th London Chess Classic, by defeating in the final
Nicholas Pert 4–2. In the
FIDE rating list of August 2015 he reached a rating of 2712 and thus joined the ranks of the 2700+ players for the first time. Howell represented England in the
42nd and
43rd Chess Olympiads, helping his team to 9th and 5th places, respectively. In 2019, Howell came close to qualifying for the
Candidates tournament after a series of good results in the
FIDE Grand Swiss tournament, before losing to
Wang Hao, the eventual qualifier. At Astana in 2019, Howell was part of the England Team that won the silver medal at the
World Team Chess Championship. His performance on board 3 also earned him an individual bronze medal. He also earned an individual gold medal on board 3 at the
44th Chess Olympiad in 2022, achieving the event's highest performance rating. Howell regularly hosts
chess24 commentary of major tournaments, such as the
2020/21 Candidates. He currently resides in the
Oslo area. ==References==