Simon Williams - chess player

Country	England
Born	30 November 1979 Surrey, England
Title	Grandmaster (2008)
Peak rating	2550 (November 2009)

Simon Kim Williams (born 30 November 1979) is a chess grandmaster and author from England.

Early career

In 1993, he received his first international FIDE rating of 2255, and won the British Junior Squad Under-12 Championships, and in 1995, finished 16th in the European Under-14 Championship. After finishing equal first with Karl Mah in the Smith and Williamson Young Masters, he received the International Master title in 1998, later in the year playing on the top board for England in U16 Chess Olympiad. In 1999, he finished 7th in European U18 Championship.

Grandmaster

He became a Grandmaster in 2008, achieving the final norm at the Hastings International Chess Congress 2005/2006 and the 2500+ rating at Hastings 2007/2008. His peak rating so far is 2550, achieved in November 2009.

In 2009, he organised the Big Slick International in Purley, London, which comprised an invitational GM tournament and FIDE Rated Open.

National Performance

In 2003, he finished second at the British Chess Championship, and equal second in 2009.

International Performance

In 2009, Williams finished equal first at the Southend Chess Congress all-play-all tournament.

He was joint winner with Gawain Jones of the London Chess Classic FIDE Rated Open in December 2010, with a rating performance of 2690.

Blitz and Rapidplay

In 2005, he won the British Blitz Championship.

Chess Commentary

Williams works as a chess commentator at tournaments and through online streaming. Most notably, he provides the official commentary at the Gibraltar Chess Festival alongside Irina Krush, and covers other tournaments for ChessBase and Chess.com.

Chess Publication Company

In 2008, he founded the chess media publishing company GingerGM with International Master Simon Ansell. The company produces print books, ebooks and DVDs.

GingerGM Publications

Works

Books

DVDs