Background
Jones was born in Keighley, West Yorkshire and began playing chess at the age of four, competing in his first tournaments at six.
chess player non-fiction writer
Jones was born in Keighley, West Yorkshire and began playing chess at the age of four, competing in his first tournaments at six.
In early 1997 he hit the headlines and was featured on the front page of The Guardian newspaper when he became the youngest player in the world ever to beat an International Master in an official tournament game. He has represented England in the World Junior and World Youth Championships on many occasions and since 2008 has been one of England"s highest rated players. An active player on the tournament circuit, he secured his grandmaster title with successful results at the 2nd European Union Individual Open Championship in Liverpool in 2006, 2006 European Club Cup in Fügeneral and 4NCL 2006/7 season.
Elsewhere in Europe, he took first place at Porto San Giorgio and Louisiana Laguna (both 2007).
During his stay in Australasia, there were many more tournament successes, including a first place at the Sydney International 2008 and creditable second places at the Doeberl Cup 2008 and Queenstown Classic 2009. Jones shared first place with Simon Williams at the London Chess Classic FIDE Open 2010, ahead of Boris Avrukh and Abhijeet Gupta.
In the same year he came first in the Commonwealth Chess Championship in Ekurhuleni and second in the open section of the 15th Corsican Circuit. He played for England at the Chess Olympiads of 2008 (Dresden), 2010 (Khanty-Mansiysk), 2012 (Istanbul) and 2014 (Tromsø).
In 2008 and 2010 he contributed scores of 50% and 75%, respectively.