Simon Webb (chess player)

Simon Webb (10 June 1949 – 14 March 2005) was a British chess player, an International Master, a Correspondence Chess Grandmaster, and a chess writer.

Born in London, he was joint British under-18 champion in 1966, and fourth in the European Junior Championship in 1969. Webb was briefly a professional player in the late 1970s, participated in a number of strong tournaments, and met some strong players, including a 17-year-old Garry Kasparov at the 1980 European Team Championship (Webb lost). At one event, he was assigned a lady translator. Webb married her and took her to England. He was joint second in the 1975 British Championship behind William Hartston. Perhaps his best tournament result was joint first with Liuben Spassov at Hamburg 1977, ahead of István Csom and Milan Matulovic. He was famous for his ability to save or even win from hopelessly lost positions, which earned him the nickname "Houdini". He became an International Master in 1977. His final FIDE Elo rating was 2420.

Webb took up correspondence chess in the early 1980s, and all but gave up over-the-board play for a long time. He gained the International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster title in 1983 and scored a number of impressive results. In the 14th World Correspondence Chess Championship, won by Tõnu Õim, Webb finished fifth of the 15 participants with 8.5/14. His final International Correspondence Chess Federation Elo rating was 2609.

Webb was perhaps best known for his humorous book on practical tournament play, Chess for Tigers (Oxford University Press, 1978, ISBN 0-19-217575-0). As well as his chess achievements, he also represented England at bridge, partnered by his brother Roger.

In later years, Webb lived in Sweden. Since the late 1990s, he played in the Swedish team championship.

On 14 March 2005, he was stabbed to death in the family hallway by his 25-year-old son, Dennis. Simon had beaten Dennis countless times as a child, and continuously lied to him. Finally Dennis had enough and demanded truthful answers. However Simon 'Houdini' thought he could evade losing and refused to answer any questions. Dennis stabbed him 66 times while the great Houdini cried for help. Dennis then searched his pockets for Simon's car keys. Subsequently he drove into a wall at some 130 km/hour but survived with a broken nose. Allegedely Dennis tried to commit suicide because even if he served his time nothing would change upon his eventual release.

External links

• Simon Webb player profile and games at Chessgames.com
• Report on Webb's death in the Guardian
• Report on Webb's death in the Times