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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 8 OF 15 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Sep-30-07  sanyas: Looks like the fifth member of Queen.
Oct-06-07  notyetagm: Another possible inclusion for John Nunn's miniature book, latest edition:

Ivanchuk vs Jobava, 2005

Nov-04-07  Tomlinsky: John has just won the World Chess Problem Solving Championship for the second time with a fantastic score of 89/90. He also helped take the Great Britian team to their third consecutive victory in the team event.

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail...

Nov-11-07  hitman84: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail...

Nice article on John Nunn!

Here is a good site for amateur astronomers...
http://www.wikisky.org/

Feb-09-08  dotty hill: I tried to find some of Nunn's mathematical works but there appears to be only one publication:

J.D.M. Nunn, The homotopy types of finite H-spaces. Topology 18 (1979), no. 1, 17–28.

It was reviewed by the famous J. Frank Adams

"(...) This satisfactory result is established using ordinary cohomology with mod 2 coefficients (of the H-space X and of its projective plane), and roughly the technical means one might expect, plus a strong ability to solve problems and construct a proof using the techniques. (...)"

Quite a nice paper that ends with
"Finally we should mention that the upper bound given here is highly extravagant, e.g. when k = 2 it is approximately 10^(10^18,8) whereas the least upper bound is known to be 14!"

Feb-10-08  KingG: <dotty hill> That was probably his PhD thesis, and I guess he concentrated on chess after that.
Feb-10-08  rgr459: That paper probably is not his thesis, but a publication of part of his thesis research
Feb-10-08  dotty hill: <KingG> I tend to agree with <rgr459> even though the paper in itself would qualify for a good thesis. Mathematical theses tend to be quite a bit longer, usually around 50-100 pages.
Feb-10-08  dotty hill: "John Nunn (1955-), Chess Grandmaster, D. Phil. (from Oxford Univ.) in 1978 at the age of 23 (and the youngest undergraduate at Oxford since Cardinal Wolsey, I've heard). PhD thesis in Algebraic Topology and author of the paper [3]"

(from http://cadigweb.ew.usna.edu/~wdj/ma...)

Speaking of his thesis: does anybody know who his advisor was?

Feb-10-08  mack: <dotty hill: Speaking of his thesis: does anybody know who his advisor was?>

I shall find out for you; give me a week.

Feb-10-08  littlefermat: <dotty hill: Speaking of his thesis: does anybody know who his advisor was?>

Probably Henry Whitehead, Ioan James, or John Hubback. Those were the algebraic topologists at Oxford, at least those I know of.

Feb-11-08  KingG: <rg459> <That paper probably is not his thesis, but a publication of part of his thesis research> Yes, that's kind of what I meant, but I should have been more precise with my language.

<Speaking of his thesis: does anybody know who his advisor was?> Normally, this would be the place to look http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.ed... , but I can't seem to find him there.

Feb-11-08  rgr459: <King> Understandable. I was not 100% sure about my previous kibitz as I am a PhD candidate in cell biology and I assumed that publications work the same way in mathematics as they do in my field.
Feb-12-08  dotty hill: <<mack> I shall find out for you; give me a week.>

That would be great! Thank you in advance.

<<KingG> I can't seem to find him there.> I asked here for precisely that reason.

Feb-12-08  dotty hill: <little fermat> Who is John Hubback? Never heard of him and couldn't find anything about him.
Feb-18-08  littlefermat: Check out Mathscinet. If you're at a college/university, you can access it for free--otherwise, it'll cost money. All of his papers, along with Nunn's, are available there (at least they are reviewed there).
Feb-18-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: Nunn was quite the prodigy, huh? I think he had finished either his Masters, or a Doctorate, in math at the age of 18. I think he entered Cambridge as a 14-year-old. If they had a chess team, I'm sure he was on it.
Feb-21-08  dotty hill: <littlefermat> I tried MSN and Google but I couldn't find anything from or about a John Hubback there (are you sure about the spelling?).
Mar-26-08  heuristic: <dotty hill> I went to Math Geneology project. Obtained a list of all PhDs from Oxford for 1975-1979. No Nunn listed.

For all aforementioned PhDs, i obtained the names of their advisors. Hubback is listed for one in 1979. Note that Hubback is not one for documentation, his thesis or PhD date is not listed.

i searched the Radcliffe library for theses. no Nunn listed.

curious.....

Mar-30-08  dotty hill: <heuristic> thanks for the effort.

The genealogy project is known to be rather incomplete - it has grown out of a one-man initiative and is based on voluntary contributions. As far as I know there was no systematic effort outside the US, quite certainly not that many years back.

That Nunn's thesis fails to be in the Radcliffe library *is* rather strange. I checked the mathematical libraries in Oxford as well, result negative.

Well, be it as it may, I still hope someday somebody will find out. Maybe I should contact Edward Winter...

Apr-09-08  Jim Bartle: In 1990, in Reykjavik, England defeated the Soviet Union in a team match for the first time. Nunn's comment:

"The Soviets cunningly prevented a repetition by splitting their country up."

Apr-25-08  MaxxLange: many happy returns for the good Doctor
Apr-25-08  DeltaHawk: In that old picture, he looks like he can be in The Warriors.
Apr-25-08  Riverbeast: Happy birthday to one of my favorite players. A true tactical genius !
Apr-25-08  littlefermat: Happy Birthday.

And thank you for the many fantastic books you've written!

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