John Nunn

Home * People * John Nunn



John Denis Martin Nunn, a British former world top ten (1989 rating of 2620) chess grandmaster , chess composer and three-time world champion in chess problem solving, chess writer, publisher and director of Gambit Publications, mathematician with a Ph.D. in 1978 at the age of 23 on algebraic topology, and polymath. He has been involved in information extraction and data mining from endgame tablebases, as lectured at the Advances in Computer Chess 7 conference and published in the ICCA Journal. Concerning computer chess, John Nunn served as tournament director at the 4th European MCC 1983, and played against chess programs at four Aegon Tournaments, 1992, 1993 (tied with winner David Bronstein), 1994 (tied with winner Larry Christiansen), and 1995. His 10 and later 20 opening proposals as published by Computerschach und Spiele were used in engine testing and matches. In 2013, Nunn applied the 7-piece Lomonosov Tablebases to R+2P vs. R+P positions from the famous book Rook Endings, 2nd edition, by Levenfish and Smyslov , which was assumed to contain the truth and, owing to Nunn, this is no longer so.

=Photos= The English team in Dubai 1986 (Jonathan Speelman, Nigel Short, John Nunn, Tony Miles)

=Selected Games= Aegon 1994, round 2, IsiChess - John Nunn [Event "Aegon 1994"] [Site "The Hague NED"] [Date "1994.04.28"] [Round "2"] [White "IsiChess"] [Black "John Nunn"] [Result "0-1"]

1.e4 c5 2.f4 d5 3.exd5 Nf6 4.c4 e6 5.Qa4+ Bd7 6.Qb3 exd5 7.cxd5 Qc7 8.Nc3 a6 9.d3 Be7 10.Nf3 O-O 11.Be2 Re8 12.O-O b5 13.Ne5 Bd6 14.Be3 Bf5 15.a4 b4 16.Nd1 Bxe5 17.fxe5 Qxe5 18.Bxc5 Bg4 19.Bxg4 Nxg4 20.g3 Nd7 21.Qxb4 Qh5 22.h4 Rab8 23.Qd4 Nxc5 24.Qxc5 Qe5 25.Rf4 Qe1+ 26.Kg2 Re2+ 27.Nf2 Qxa1 28.Rxg4 Rxf2+ 29.Qxf2 Rxb2 30.Re4 Rxf2+ 31.Kxf2 f5 32.Rc4 Qe5 33.Rc8+ Kf7 0-1 Aegon 1994, round 3, John Nunn - Quest [Event "Aegon 1994"] [Site "The Hague NED"] [Date "1994.04.29"] [Round "3"] [White "John Nunn"] [Black "Quest"] [Result "1-0"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 3.Nxe5 Qf6 4.Nc4 fxe4 5.Nc3 Qf7 6.d4 Bb4 7.Be2 Nf6 8.O-O d5 9.Ne5 Qe7 10.Bg5 c6 11.f3 exf3 12.Rxf3 O-O 13.Qe1 Nbd7 14.Bd3 h6 15.Bh4 Bc5 16.Nxc6 bxc6 17.dxc5 Qxc5+ 18.Bf2 Qd6 19.Bg3 Qc5+ 20.Bf2 Qd6 21.Bg3 Qc5+ 22.Qf2 Qxf2+ 23.Rxf2 Bb7 24.Re1 Rae8 25.Rfe2 Rxe2 26.Rxe2 Kf7 27.Bf2 a6 28.Na4 Re8 29.Rxe8 Nxe8 30.Bd4 Nc7 31.Bf5 Bc8 32.Kf2 g6 33.Bh3 Ne6 34.Ke3 Ke7 35.Bxe6 Kxe6 36.b4 Kf5 37.Bg7 h5 38.Kd4 g5 39.Nb2 Kg6 40.Bh8 h4 41.Nd3 g4 42.g3 h3 43.a4 Kh7 44.Be5 Kg6 45.a5 Kf5 46.Bg7 Kg6 47.Bh8 Kf5 48.Nf2 Kg5 49.Nd1 Bb7 50.Be5 Bc8 51.Ne3 Kh5 52.Bd6 Bb7 53.Be7 Ba8 54.Nf5 Kg6 55.Nd6 Kh7 56.Nf7 Kg7 57.Ne5 Nxe5 58.Kxe5 Bb7 59.Kd6 Bc8 60.Kxc6 Kf7 61.Bc5 Ke6 62.Kb6 Kd7 63.Bd4 Kd6 64.c3 Kd7 65.b5 axb5 66.a6 Bxa6 67.Kxa6 Ke6 68.Kxb5 Kf5 69.Kc5 Ke4 70.Kd6 Kf3 71.Ke5 Kg2 72.Kf4 Kxh2 73.Kxg4 Kh1 74.Bg1 Kg2 75.Kh4 1-0 Aegon 1994, round 6, Zarkov 3.0 - John Nunn [Event "Aegon 1994"] [Site "The Hague NED"] [Date "1994.05.04"] [Round "6"] [White "Zarkov 3.0"] [Black "John Nunn"] [Result "1/2-1/2"]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.g3 O-O 5.Bg2 c6 6.Nc3 d5 7.cxd5 cxd5 8.Ne5 e6 9.O-O Nfd7 10.f4 f6 11.Nxd7 Bxd7 12.Nxd5 exd5 13.Bxd5+ Kh8 14.Bxb7 Bc6 15.Bxa8 Bxa8 16.f5 Qd5 17.Rf3 gxf5 18.Kf1 Nc6 19.Be3 Rd8 20.Qa4 f4 21.gxf4 Qh5 22.d5 Qxd5 23.Rc1 Ne7 24.Qxa7 Nf5 25.b3 Nh4 26.Rg3 Qh1+ 27.Bg1 Nf5 28.Rg4 h5 29.Qa5 hxg4 30.Qxd8+ Kh7 31.Qb6 Kg6 32.Qf2 Bf8 33.Rc4 Ba3 34.Ke1 Bd5 35.Rc2 Bb4+ 36.Kd1 Bxb3 37.axb3 Qd5+ 38.Kc1 Ba3+ 39.Rb2 Qxb3 40.e4 Nd6 41.Qc2 Bxb2+ 42.Qxb2 Qc4+ 43.Kd2 Nxe4+ 44.Ke1 Kf5 45.Be3 Qd3 46.Qe2 Qb1+ 47.Qd1 Qxd1+ 48.Kxd1 Nc3+ 49.Ke1 Nd5 50.Kf2 Nxf4 51.Kg3 Nh3 52.Bd4 Ng5 53.Bxf6 Ne4+ 54.Kh4 Nxf6 1/2-1/2

=Selected Publications=

1978 ...

 * John Nunn (1978). Some Problems in Algebraic Topology. Ph.D. thesis, University of Oxford, supervisor John R. Hubbuck
 * John Nunn (1979). The homotopy types of finite H-spaces. Topology, Vol. 18, No. 1

1980 ...

 * John Nunn (1982). The Benoni for the Tournament Player. Batsford
 * John Nunn (1985, 2002). Solving in Style. Batsford, Gambit
 * John Nunn (1988). Life with ChessBase. ICCA Journal, Vol. 11, Nos. 2/3 » ChessBase (Database)
 * John Nunn (1989). The Complete Pirc. Batsford.

1990 ...

 * John Nunn (1992). Secrets of Rook Endings. Batsford
 * John Nunn (1992). Perfect Prose. ICCA Journal, Vol. 15, No. 2
 * John Nunn (1993). Extracting Information from Endgame Databases. ICCA Journal, Vol. 16, No. 4
 * John Nunn (1994). Extracting Information from Endgame Databases. Advances in Computer Chess 7
 * John Nunn (1994). Secrets of Pawnless Endings. Batsford, 2nd Edition (2002). Gambit
 * John Nunn (1994). More, and More Perfect Prose. ICCA Journal, Vol. 17, No. 2
 * John Nunn (1995). Secrets of Minor-Piece Endings. Batsford
 * John Nunn (1999). John Nunn’s chess puzzle book. Gambit
 * John Nunn, Graham Burgess, John Emms, Joe Gallagher (1999). Nunn's Chess Openings. Cadogan Chess Books

2000 ...

 * John Nunn (2001). Secrets of Minor-Piece Endings. Rowman & Littlefield
 * John Nunn (2003). Learn Chess Tactics. Gambit
 * John Nunn (2003). Tactical Chess Endings. Batsford
 * ChessBase, the Editor, John Nunn, David Levy (2005). Adams Outclassed by HYDRA. ICGA Journal, Vol. 28, No. 2 » Hydra
 * John Nunn (2005). Grandmaster Chess Move by Move. Gambit
 * John Nunn (2009). Understanding Chess Endgames. Gambit

2010 ...

 * John Nunn (2010). Nunn's Chess Endings, volume 1. Gambit
 * John Nunn (2010). Nunn's Chess Endings, volume 2. Gambit
 * John Nunn (2013). Discoveries in R+2P vs. R+P Endings. ICGA Journal, Vol. 36, No. 3 » Lomonosov Tablebases
 * John Nunn (2014). Maths and Chess. ICGA Journal, Vol. 37, No. 4

=Forum Posts=
 * Nunn openings by Jouni Uski, CCC, November 07, 2005
 * Nunn2 openings by Kurt Utzinger, CCC, November 07, 2005
 * Artikel von John Nunn by Ingo Althöfer, CSS Forum, January 08, 2014 (German)

=External Links=
 * John Nunn from Wikipedia
 * John Nunn - The Mathematics Genealogy Project
 * Nunn, John D M FIDE Chess Profile
 * The chess games of John Nunn from chessgames.com
 * Gambit Publications Limited - John Nunn’s Chess Course
 * BBC World Service - More or Less, Maths and Chess, April 06, 2015

ChessBase

 * John Nunn | ChessBase

2004 ...

 * World Champion Dr GM GM John Nunn by Themis Argirakopoulos, ChessBase News, September 22, 2004
 * The draw problem – a simple solution by John Nunn, ChessBase News, October 11, 2005
 * John Nunn wins World Chess Problem Solving Championship, ChessBase News, March 11, 2007

2010 ...

 * World Problem Solving Championship by John Nunn, ChessBase News, March 11, 2010
 * Chess and Astronomy by John Nunn, ChessBase News, June 14, 2010
 * Nunn wins Second Tata Steel study solving contest, ChessBase News, February 12, 2011
 * 'The Behting study is sound' by John Nunn, ChessBase News, October 05, 2012 » Behting Study

2015 ...

 * BBC Radio talks with John Nunn by Albert Silver, ChessBase News, April 11, 2015
 * John Nunn these days by Frederic Friedel, ChessBase News, December 08, 2017
 * John Nunn: Fifty years of chess by John Nunn, ChessBase News, April 03, 2018
 * Championship problem solutions by John Nunn, ChessBase News, October 20, 2018
 * Garry Kasparov – did he actually exist? by John Nunn, ChessBase News, October 20, 2018 » Garry Kasparov
 * Solving with Nunn by John Nunn, ChessBase News, September 20, 2019

Chess24

 * John Nunn on maths, chess, computers and Lasker by Colin McGourty, Chess24, April 06, 2015

=References= Up one level