William Hartston facts for kids
Quick facts for kids William Hartston |
|
|---|---|
| Full name | William Roland Hartston |
| Country | England |
| Born | 12 August 1947 Willesden, Middlesex, England |
| Title | International Master (1973) |
| FIDE rating | 2430 (July 2025) |
| Peak rating | 2485 (January 1979) |
William Roland Hartston was born on August 12, 1947. He is an English journalist and a very good chess player. He has written the "Beachcomber" column for the Daily Express newspaper since 1998. He played chess professionally from 1962 to 1987.
William Hartston earned the title of International Master in 1972. Today, he is mostly known for writing books about chess and for presenting the game on television.
Contents
Early Life and Chess Achievements
William Hartston was born in Willesden, England. He went to the City of London School. Later, he studied Mathematics at Jesus College, Cambridge University.
He was a very successful chess player. At the 19th Chess Olympiad in 1970, he won a gold medal. He was the best player on board 3 for his team. He also won the British Chess Championship twice, in 1973 and 1975.
Hartston was very close to becoming an International Grandmaster. This is a very high title in chess. He even became the first person to stack all the pieces from a chess set on top of one white rook!
William Hartston on TV
From the early 1970s, William Hartston appeared on the BBC many times. He was usually an expert commentator and analyst for big world chess matches. These included famous matches like Fischer-Spassky in 1972 and Kasparov-Short in 1993.
On December 7, 1990, he was part of a special show called Your Move on BBC2. In this show, a grandmaster played against the TV audience. Viewers called in to vote on the next move. The show lasted about three hours!
He won the BBC's The Master Game competition twice. After that, he became the show's expert. In the 1980s, he presented the BBC series Play Chess.
Writing and Other Work
In recent years, William Hartston has done many different creative things. He has created thinking competitions for The Independent newspaper. He also worked with the Mind Sports Olympiad.
Since 1996, he has written the unique "Beachcomber" column for the Daily Express. He has also written many books. These books cover topics like chess, mathematics, humor, and fun facts. He has been a guest on the BBC Radio 4 show Puzzle Panel too.
Besides chess and media, Hartston is also a mathematician. He worked on how teams work together. He also helped start a website called wakkipedia.com, which had lots of interesting but useless information. His book, A Brief History of Puzzles, came out in 2019.
In 2013, William Hartston and his friend Josef Kollar became regular "viewers" on the Channel 4 TV show Gogglebox. In 2023, his book about humor, Knock, knock!, was published.
Personal Life
William Hartston was married to Woman Grandmaster Jana Bellin. They were married in 1970. He later married Elizabeth Bannerman in 1978. They have two sons named James and Nicholas.
