John Cameron Saunders (born 1953 in Loudwater,

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

) is a British

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

player, writer, editor and journalist.

Chess career

Saunders learned to play chess at age seven, beginning competitive play after attending

Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe , established = , closed = , type = Selective Grammar SchoolAcademy , head_label = Headmaster , head = Philip Wayne , r_head_label = , r_head = , chair_label = , chair = , founder ...

(1963–1970). He continued his education at

Selwyn College, Cambridge Selwyn College, Cambridge (formally Selwyn College in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1882 by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of George Augustus Selwyn (18 ...

, obtaining a degree in Law and Classics. Saunders reached a peak

Elo rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor. The Elo system was invented as an improved ch ...

of 2255 in January 1993 after winning several domestic open tournaments. He then played internationally for his home country

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

after being chosen first reserve board for the 1997 European Team Championship. He became less active as a player and established a career in chess writing and journalism, first as editor of ''

British Chess Magazine ''British Chess Magazine'' is the world's oldest chess journal in continuous publication. First published in January 1881, it has appeared at monthly intervals ever since. It is frequently known in the chess world as ''BCM''. The founder and ...

'' (1999 to July 2010), then editor of '' CHESS Magazine'' (from September 2010), as well as providing news coverage for

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

Ceefax Ceefax (, punning on "seeing facts") was the world's first teletext information service and a forerunner to the current BBC Red Button service. Ceefax was started by the BBC in 1974 and ended, after 38 years of broadcasting, at 23:32:19 BST ( ...

. He has also authored instructive guides on chess covering a broad range of expertise, and is the founder and archivist of ''Britbase'' – a chess games database with objective to log the collected of all major tournaments in British chess history.

Publications

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References

External links

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BritBase.info - List of all British Chess Champions from 1904 to present, maintained by John SaundersCHESS website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saunders, John 1953 births Living people Welsh chess players British chess writers People educated at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge