David Robert Norwood (born 3 October 1968) is an English businessman who runs an investment fund that finances spin-off companies from

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

science departments. He is also a chess grandmaster, chess writer, former captain of the English chess team and now represents

Andorra , image_flag = Flag of Andorra.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Andorra.svg , symbol_type = Coat of arms , national_motto = la, Virtus Unita Fortior, label=none (Latin)"United virtue is stro ...

at chess.

Career

The son of an electrician, Norwood graduated with a history degree from Keble College, Oxford in 1988 before joining city investment bank Banker's Trust in 1991. Norwood cofounde
Oxford Sciences Innovation
a £600m investment company dedicated to funding deep science from Oxford University, and was its CEO from 2015 to 2019. Formerly he was founder of IP Group plc, a fund that invested in spinoffs from Oxford University's Chemistry department, in exchange for 50% of the revenues from the licensing of the department's intellectual property. In 2017, Norwood donate
£1.9M to Keble College's future hub
for innovation at Oxford University.

Chess

FIDE awarded Norwood the International Master title in 1985 and the International Grandmaster title in 1989. He is less active as an over-the-board player these days, but maintains a strong interest in chess as a member of the

Internet Chess Club The Internet Chess Club (ICC) is a commercial Internet chess server devoted to the play and discussion of chess and chess variants. ICC had over 30,000 subscribing members in 2005.John Black, Martin Cochran, Martin Ryan Gardner"Lessons Learned ...

. He has on a number of occasions captained, managed, or sponsored the England squad in major team events such as the

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 an ...

. Norwood has written several books including ''Winning with the Modern'' (the Modern Defence being a favorite opening of his) and ''Steve Davis plays Chess'' (co-authored with

Steve Davis Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he reached eight World S ...

). He has also written many articles on chess for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

''. He also made a large donation in 2001 to the

British Chess Federation The English Chess Federation (ECF) is the governing chess organisation in England. It is affiliated to FIDE. The ECF was formed in 2004 as one of the more localised successors to the British Chess Federation (BCF), an organisation founded in 1904. ...

to assist with the development of junior chess.

Illustrative games

In the following game, Norwood's hypermodern opening leads to an old-fashioned king hunt: Norwood-Marsh, Walsall 1992David Norwood vs Sean Marsh (1992) "Marsh Mellow"

Chessgames.com Chessgames.com is an Internet chess community with over 224,000 members. The site maintains a large database of chess games, where each game has its own discussion page for comments and analysis. Limited primarily to games where at least one pla ...

1. g3 d5
2. Nf3 Nf6
3. Bg2 e6
4. O-O Be7
5. d3 c5
6. Nbd2 Nc6
7. e4 b6
8. e5 Nd7
9. Re1 Qc7
10. Qe2 Bb7
11. h4 O-O-O
12. a3 h6
13. h5 Rdg8
14. c4 d4
15. b4 g6
16. bxc5 bxc5
17. hxg6 Rxg6
18. Rb1 h5
19. Ne4 h4
20. Bg5 Bf8
21. Nxh4 Rgg8
22. Nf3 Rh7
23. Nd6+ Bxd6
24. exd6 Qxd6
25. Bf4 Qe7
26. Rxb7 Kxb7
27. Qe4 f5 (diagram below)
28. Qxc6+!! Kxc6
29. Nxd4+ Kb6
30. Rb1+ Ka6
31. Bb7+ Ka5
32. Bd2+ Ka4
33. Bc6+ Kxa3
34. Bc1+ Ka2
35. Rb2+ Ka1
36. Nc2# 1-0

Books

* * *

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Norwood, David 1968 births Living people English chess players Chess grandmasters British chess writers English writers English sportswriters People from Farnworth Alumni of Keble College, Oxford