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John Nunn
Nunn 
 

Number of games in database: 1,763
Years covered: 1963 to 2024
Last FIDE rating: 2528 (2536 rapid, 2490 blitz)
Highest rating achieved in database: 2630
Overall record: +664 -255 =753 (62.2%)*
   * Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games in the database. 91 exhibition games, blitz/rapid, odds games, etc. are excluded from this statistic.

MOST PLAYED OPENINGS
With the White pieces:
 Sicilian (338) 
    B33 B81 B89 B32 B80
 French Defense (132) 
    C11 C19 C10 C16 C07
 Ruy Lopez (115) 
    C84 C92 C80 C73 C67
 Caro-Kann (80) 
    B12 B10 B17 B13 B14
 Sicilian Najdorf (58) 
    B90 B93 B99 B97 B96
 Ruy Lopez, Closed (58) 
    C84 C92 C93 C90 C95
With the Black pieces:
 King's Indian (259) 
    E97 E81 E92 E60 E84
 Sicilian (145) 
    B33 B45 B97 B92 B90
 Ruy Lopez (82) 
    C89 C84 C85 C68 C64
 Ruy Lopez, Closed (61) 
    C89 C84 C85 C86 C92
 Modern Benoni (54) 
    A65 A77 A61 A67 A62
 Sicilian Najdorf (53) 
    B97 B92 B90 B93 B95
Repertoire Explorer

NOTABLE GAMES: [what is this?]
   A Beliavsky vs Nunn, 1985 0-1
   J Ost-Hansen vs Nunn, 1974 0-1
   L Y Hsu vs Nunn, 1992 0-1
   J Augustin vs Nunn, 1977 0-1
   Nunn vs Fedorowicz, 1991 1-0
   M Hebden vs Nunn, 1979 0-1
   R Reynolds vs Nunn, 1987 0-1
   Nunn vs K Georgiev, 1988 1-0
   Nunn vs J A Sutton, 1984 1-0
   Nunn vs G Anthony, 1981 1-0

NOTABLE TOURNAMENTS: [what is this?]
   European Junior Championship 1974/75 (1974)
   Wiesbaden (1981)
   Budapest Tungsram (1978)
   FRG Open Championship (1986)
   Hoogovens (1990)
   British Championship (1979)
   Thessaloniki Olympiad (1984)
   7th Lloyds Bank Masters Open (1983)
   14th Lloyds Bank Masters Open (1990)
   17th Lloyds Bank Masters Open (1993)
   Szirak Interzonal (1987)
   Norwich Junior (1972)
   Commonwealth Championship (1985)
   11th Lloyds Bank Masters Open (1987)
   Buenos Aires Olympiad (1978)

GAME COLLECTIONS: [what is this?]
   0ZeR0's collected games volume 16 by 0ZeR0
   0ZeR0's Favorite Games Volume 16 by dheerajmohan
   Nunn & Griffiths: Secrets of Grandmaster Play by pawn to QB4
   Nunn & Griffiths: Secrets of Grandmaster Play by yiotta
   Grandmaster Chess Move by Move by pdoaks
   Grandmaster Chess Move by Move by edwin.n.walker
   Rotterdam World Cup 1989 by suenteus po 147

GAMES ANNOTATED BY NUNN: [what is this?]
   Short vs Miles, 1984
   Musaiev vs M Karmov, 1979
   Nunn vs Sadler, 1993
   Hodgson vs S Agdestein, 1986
   Najdorf vs Mecking, 1978
   >> 6 GAMES ANNOTATED BY NUNN

RECENT GAMES:
   🏆 European Senior Championship
   Nunn vs A Karason (Nov-02-24) 1-0
   Nunn vs B Burchardt (Oct-26-24) 1-0
   S Jensen vs Nunn (Oct-25-24) 0-1
   Nunn vs N Gaprindashvili (Jun-03-23) 1-0
   Nunn vs N Birnboim (Nov-22-22) 1-0

Search Sacrifice Explorer for John Nunn
Search Google for John Nunn
FIDE player card for John Nunn

JOHN NUNN
(born Apr-25-1955, 70 years old) United Kingdom

[what is this?]

Dr. John Denis Martin Nunn was born in London, England. FIDE awarded him the IM title in 1975 and the GM title in 1978. He, along with Ram Soffer and Andrew Jonathan Mestel, has the distinction of holding both over-the-board and problem-solving GM titles. He won the European Junior Championship in 1974-75, was British Champion in 1980 and was a triple gold medalist in the Thessaloniki Olympiad in 1984. He won the World Problem Solving Championship in 2004, 2007, and 2010. He won the over-65 section of the 2022 and 2023 World Senior Championships.

He is also a well-respected chess author who has written a number of best-selling works on endgames and the openings.

He holds a doctorate in Mathematics from Oxford University. His dissertation was on finite H-spaces.

Wikipedia article: John Nunn

Last updated: 2023-11-06 02:51:28

Try our new games table.

 page 1 of 71; games 1-25 of 1,763  PGN Download
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. Keene vs Nunn 1-0221963Surrey Junior ChampsA04 Reti Opening
2. Keene vs Nunn 1-0281969HammersmithA09 Reti Opening
3. Miles vs Nunn 1-0201969BCF-ch U18C55 Two Knights Defense
4. R Emerson vs Nunn ½-½541969Hammersmith OpenC85 Ruy Lopez, Exchange Variation Doubly Deferred (DERLD)
5. Keene vs Nunn 1-0471970HammersmithA08 King's Indian Attack
6. J M Aitken vs Nunn  ½-½141970Islington OpenC64 Ruy Lopez, Classical
7. Nunn vs R Johannes 1-0321970Islington Junior AB47 Sicilian, Taimanov (Bastrikov) Variation
8. Nunn vs R Moberly  ½-½521970Islington Junior AC73 Ruy Lopez, Modern Steinitz Defense
9. S Mariotti vs Nunn 1-0201970Islington Junior AC64 Ruy Lopez, Classical
10. Miles vs Nunn 0-1491970Islington Junior AC44 King's Pawn Game
11. Nunn vs R R Smith 1-0161970Islington Junior AB12 Caro-Kann Defense
12. R Bellin vs Nunn  ½-½231970Islington Junior AC64 Ruy Lopez, Classical
13. Nunn vs M Stean  0-1231970Islington Junior AB99 Sicilian, Najdorf, 7...Be7 Main line
14. R O'Kelly vs Nunn 1-0241970Islington Junior AD07 Queen's Gambit Declined, Chigorin Defense
15. Nunn vs Keene 0-1221971HammersmithB06 Robatsch
16. B Kurajica vs Nunn 0-1211971IslingtonC88 Ruy Lopez
17. S Velickovic vs Nunn  0-1371972Norwich JuniorC84 Ruy Lopez, Closed
18. Nunn vs M Stean  ½-½201972Norwich JuniorB98 Sicilian, Najdorf
19. M Pujol Sans vs Nunn  ½-½561972Norwich JuniorC85 Ruy Lopez, Exchange Variation Doubly Deferred (DERLD)
20. Nunn vs H Wirthensohn  ½-½211972Norwich JuniorB12 Caro-Kann Defense
21. S Ivarsson vs Nunn  1-0561972Norwich JuniorA00 Uncommon Opening
22. Nunn vs T Rosenlund  ½-½311972Norwich JuniorB09 Pirc, Austrian Attack
23. B de Jonghe vs Nunn 0-1251972Norwich JuniorC48 Four Knights
24. Sax vs Nunn 1-0251972Norwich JuniorC57 Two Knights
25. Nunn vs R M McKay  ½-½181972Norwich JuniorA00 Uncommon Opening
 page 1 of 71; games 1-25 of 1,763  PGN Download
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Nunn wins | Nunn loses  

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 11 OF 15 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Aug-22-11  wordfunph: i read somewhere that John Nunn's most irritating opponent was a German who ate sausage at the board, funny lol!
Aug-25-11  hedgeh0g: It's quite apt that Nunn became so proficient in problem-solving, considering that many of his most well-known games contained problem-like winning shots. A great tactician with a few too many draws to his name.
Oct-19-11  Korifej: Carlsen once said that Nunn not become worl champ. because he is to smart for playing chess (something like that)
Nov-18-11  ControlledDemolition: His barnet is terrible; unkempt collar-length white hair reminds one of <David Icke>.

http://www.chessbase.com/news/2010/...

Mar-20-12  whiteshark: Quote of the Day

< Chess is to a considerable extent about <pattern recognition>. The more patterns you have firmly fixed in your memory, the more effective you are likely to be at the chessboard.>

-- Nunn

http://www.chessville.com/instructi...

Mar-20-12  haydn20: <whiteshark> Nunn shd know about pattern recognition. IMO it is the single most important factor in mathematical ability. If you can recognize patterns, logic and computation (which most students think math is) are relatively easy to learn.
Apr-25-12  talisman: happy birthday John.
Apr-25-13  brankat: Best wishes for Your Birthday GM Nunn!
Feb-23-14  thegoodanarchist: < HeMateMe: He did his PhD at Cambridge University (I think, while still a teenager)>

Profile says Oxford U. Suspect that cg.com is right and <HMM> not.

Don't know for sure. What I do know is that Dr. Nunn deserves a longer profile!

Feb-23-14  thegoodanarchist: <kellmano: Nunn's profile picture is seriously cool.>

Yes indeed.

Feb-23-14  thegoodanarchist: <HeMateMe: .... In addition, Hilbert spaces are required to be complete, a property that stipulates the existence of enough limits in the space to allow the techniques of calculus to be used.>

Well, for QM this is not quite the definition of completeness. But for other aspects of mathematics this very well may be the case.

Feb-23-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: My nic on another chess site is <NunnOfTheAbove>. It was my first choice for this site, but I saw something in the guidelines here that said members were barred from using names of active GMs for their nic.

Three cheers for the brilliant math prodigy, chess champion and budding astronomer!

Apr-05-14  Conrad93: Best English player of all time.
Apr-05-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: Nunn was a fine player at top level and remains an outstanding author, but <Nigel Short> easily has a better resume.

A world title match and numerous successes add up to: career don't lie!

Apr-06-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  offramp: Where in London was he born? Big place, London.
Apr-06-14  RedShield: In his youth, he was known as the <Tooting Terror>.
Apr-06-14  Conrad93: Nigel Short is not as exciting.

Plus, it seems that Nunn has a huge plus score against Short.

Player: John Nunn
Player profile: Nigel Short
Classical games: John Nunn beat Nigel Short 5 to 0, with 13 draws.

Apr-06-14  Conrad93: Not a single win.
Apr-06-14  Conrad93: Nigel Short: better career:

John Nunn: better games.

As far as I am aware, Short didn't take as many risks, which is a good plan in general, but can lead to very boring chess.

Apr-06-14  N0B0DY: Jabberwocky!
Apr-06-14
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: If 'better games' is defined as draws in twenty-five moves or less, <Conrad> is correct:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches...

Works out to just about 20 per cent. Out great genius <Conrad> can tell us that is <nearly one game in five>.

Kasparov was minus vs Gulko-do you propose to suggest the latter was the stronger player, or had the greater career? Multiple world champions facing Geller? Better explain why Geller was greater than all of them, but never even got a match for the title.

Have your go at it, moronic spambot, but y'all will have to do a bit better'n that.

Short's number of draws in 25 moves or less: 247 of 2470 games played. Ten per cent.

Apr-06-14  Jim Bartle: Nunn certainly has played many brilliant games (wins and losses), topped by Beliavsky vs Nunn, 1985.

I guess you could say Short is boring. If you consider plodding your king from g1 to g5 dull: Short vs Timman, 1991

And he has played some great games (and some not so gunder the greatest pressure: Short vs Karpov, 1992 Final, decisive game of a candidates match.

Apr-06-14  RedShield: <Plus, it seems that Nunn has a huge plus score against Short.>

It's worth remembering that Short's problem with English chess wasn't confined to Tony Miles.

Apr-06-14  Conrad93: <Kasparov was minus vs Gulko-do you propose to suggest the latter was the stronger player, or had the greater career? Multiple world champions facing Geller? Better explain why Geller was greater than all of them, but never even got a match for the title.>

Yep,looks like Gulko is the better player.

Apr-06-14  Conrad93: The Short-Timman game isn't that great. The king march seems quite obvious.

Black has no real threats to prevent it from marching to the kingside.

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