BCN sends Birthday greetings to David Howell on this day.

David Wei Lang Howell was born in Eastbourne, East Sussex on Wednesday 14th of November 1990. His parents are Martin and Angeline Howell (née Choo).

An unknown jumble sale (Eastbourne?) provided the Howell family with a chess set.

David learnt the moves from Martin, his father and rapidly improved and he joined Sussex Junior Chess Association and he began representing his county in EPSCA matches and other competitions.

In Torquay in 1998 whilst Nigel Short and Susan Lalic were busy winning the main championships David made his mark by winning the British Under-8 Championship, an event that had started only ten years beforehand.

A trip to Scarborough in 1999 yielded both the Under-9 and Under-10 championships.

Sponsorship from now dissolved software company JEB (Hove) enabled David to be coached by Glenn Flear.

David became a FIDE Master at the age of ten years, nine months and 26 days. He became an International Master aged 13 years, 2 months and 22 days.

Finally the Grandmaster title came at 16 years, 1 month and 22 days.

David’s rise has been well documented both here and here and therefore we will not attempt to improve on these sources.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI9nJZtnseU[/embedyt]

David was Southern Counties (SCCU) champion for the 2010-11 season sharing with Danny Gormally.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpguQx0A79w[/embedyt]

With the white pieces David is a firm believer in 1.e4 but he has played (and continues to do so) 1.Nf3, 1.c4 and 1.d4 and he has scored 89% over nineteen games with. 1.g3

Like Sheila Jackson and Susan Lalic David was a big fan of the Sicilian Alapin but nowadays the Moscow and Rossolimo variations.

As the second player David prefers open games and has played the closed Ruy Lopez and the Marshall Attack. David also employs the Berlin Defence.
Defending against the Queen’s pawn David is less varied and plumps for the Grünfeld defence most of the time. On critical occasions David will use the Caro-Kann as a winning weapon.

So, a wide repertoire with both the white and black pieces and therefore not easy to prepare for: a very modern player!

David has plus scores against Mark Hebden, Peter Wells, Nick Pert, Simon Williams, Jonathan Speelman, Nigel Short and almost all of his fellow British GMs except for Gawain Jones, Michael Adams and Luke McShane.

David started his 4NCL career with Invicta Knights with a FIDE rating of 1432 in May 1999. By 2001 he was playing for Nigel Johnson and his Slough team. In 2004 the inevitable occurred and David transferred (as is common) to either cash rich Wood Green or Guildford. In fact it was Guildford on this occasion. In 2009 David moved to Pride & Prejudice. 2012 saw David playing for Wood Green Hillsmark. In 2015 he switched to Cheddleton and remained with them until 2019 finally returning to Guildford in 2020.

In November 2021 David took part in the 108-player FIDE Grand Prix event in Riga and after nine round he lying equal third on 6.5 with with Alireza Firouja and Fabiano Caruana. He eventually finished on 7/11 with a TPR of 2764.

Here is a tough struggle from that event:

[pgn]
[Event “2021 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss”]
[Site “Riga”]
[Date “2021.11.03”]
[Round “7.24”]
[White “Ponomariov, Ruslan”]
[Black “Howell, David W L”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “C65”]
[WhiteElo “2631”]
[BlackElo “2658”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “152”]
[EventDate “2021.10.27”]
[EventRounds “11”]
[EventCountry “LAT”]
[SourceTitle “chess-results.com”]

{[%evp 0,152,19,38,25,7,30,29,22,22,12,-1,19,19,42,22,21,21,45,18,12,4,22,3,47,
56,46,44,70,64,64,55,58,43,52,47,37,23,2,8,17,-8,8,6,15,4,8,6,6,1,22,4,-4,0,-5,
0,24,0,0,-17,-10,-11,-18,-12,0,-51,-46,-58,12,-49,-12,-20,-19,-46,-41,-45,-51,
-57,-41,-50,-55,-87,-55,-99,-99,-186,-189,-178,-180,-178,-183,-244,-260,-252,
-236,-224,-224,-226,-191,-178,-190,-190,-177,-193,-172,-176,-175,-208,-208,
-197,-217,-224,-230,-211,-207,-229,-233,-226,-223,-223,-223,-241,-241,-241,
-241,-241,-199,-208,-208,-208,-257,-299,-233,-311,-213,-210,-209,-206,-223,
-255,-249,-272,-275,-275,-274,-470,-274,-348,-289,-383,-286,-296,-266,-590,
-510]} 1. e4 {[%emt 0:00:01]} e5 {[%emt 0:00:23]} 2. Nf3 {[%emt 0:00:08]} Nc6 {
[%emt 0:00:05]} 3. Bb5 {[%emt 0:00:19]} Nf6 {[%emt 0:00:11]} 4. d3 {[%emt 0:00:
27]} Bc5 {[%emt 0:00:07]} 5. Bxc6 {[%emt 0:00:43]} dxc6 {[%emt 0:00:10]} 6. O-O
{[%emt 0:00:22]} Nd7 {[%emt 0:00:13]} 7. c3 {[%emt 0:00:52]} h6 {[%emt 0:00:54]
} ({Relevant:} 7… O-O 8. d4 Bd6 9. Bg5 f6 10. Bh4 Qe8 11. Nbd2 a5 12. Qc2 Qf7
13. Bg3 a4 14. b3 exd4 15. Bxd6 cxd6 16. Nxd4 axb3 17. axb3 Rxa1 18. Rxa1 d5
19. exd5 Qxd5 20. Nc4 Ne5 21. Nb6 Qd8 22. Nxc8 Qxc8 23. Nf5 Qe6 24. Rd1 Nf7 25.
Nd4 Qe7 26. Nf5 Qe6 27. Nd4 Qe7 28. Nf5 Qe6 {1/2-1/2 (28) Oparin,G (2654)
-Firouzja,A (2770) Riga 2021}) 8. d4 {[%emt 0:02:10]} Bd6 {[%emt 0:00:08]} 9.
Nbd2 {[%emt 0:16:05]} O-O {[%emt 0:00:46]} 10. Nc4 {[%emt 0:04:24]} exd4 {
[%emt 0:00:41]} 11. Nxd4 {[%emt 0:02:44]} Nc5 {[%emt 0:18:10] [#]} 12. f3 $146
{[%emt 0:03:44]} ({Predecessor:} 12. e5 Be7 13. f4 f5 14. Be3 Qd5 15. Qe2 Ne4
16. Nd2 Nxd2 17. Bxd2 c5 18. Nf3 Be6 19. Be3 Rfd8 20. Qf2 b6 21. h3 Qc6 22. Kh2
Rd3 23. a3 a5 24. Rg1 a4 25. g4 Rad8 26. Rae1 Qd7 27. g5 Kh7 28. gxh6 gxh6 29.
Rg3 Rg8 30. Reg1 Bf8 31. Rxg8 Bxg8 32. e6 Qxe6 33. Ne5 Rd6 34. Qg2 c4 35. Qb7
Qe7 36. Qf3 Bd5 37. Qh5 Be4 38. Rg6 Bg7 39. Bd4 Rxg6 40. Qxg6+ Kg8 41. Nc6 Qf7
{Fier,A (2560)-Salgado Lopez,I (2584) chess24.com INT 2020 0-1}) 12… Re8 {
[%emt 0:02:00]} 13. Be3 {[%emt 0:05:30]} Bf8 {[%emt 0:06:23]} 14. Qc2 {[%emt 0:
13:36]} a5 {[%emt 0:01:50]} 15. Rad1 {[%emt 0:04:26]} Qe7 {[%emt 0:01:48]} 16.
Bf2 {[%emt 0:03:47]} f6 {[%emt 0:07:17]} 17. b3 {[%emt 0:06:27]} Qf7 {[%emt 0:
01:19]} 18. Rfe1 {[%emt 0:00:35]} a4 {[%emt 0:01:06]} 19. Bg3 {[%emt 0:03:32]}
Ne6 {[%emt 0:06:26]} 20. Nf5 {[%emt 0:02:32]} Nc5 {[%emt 0:03:49]} 21. Nd4 {
[%emt 0:01:02]} Ne6 {[%emt 0:02:15]} 22. Nf5 {[%emt 0:00:27]} g6 {[%emt 0:03:
32]} 23. Nfe3 {[%emt 0:02:44]} h5 {[%emt 0:03:39]} 24. Nb2 {[%emt 0:05:33]} Nc5
{[%emt 0:09:56]} 25. b4 {[%emt 0:06:42]} a3 {[%emt 0:02:04]} 26. Nbc4 {[%emt 0:
00:07]} Na4 {[%emt 0:08:37]} 27. Nxa3 {[%emt 0:02:10]} Nb6 {[%emt 0:00:22]} 28.
Qb2 {[%emt 0:01:05]} Na4 {[%emt 0:05:20]} 29. Qc2 {[%emt 0:00:33]} Be6 {
[%emt 0:01:13]} 30. Rd2 {[%emt 0:04:22]} Nb6 {[%emt 0:07:26]} 31. Qb2 {[%emt 0:
00:25]} Ra4 {[%emt 0:07:13]} 32. Red1 {[%emt 0:06:40]} Bh6 {[%emt 0:01:43]} 33.
Bf2 {[%emt 0:00:58]} Qe7 {[%emt 0:00:50] [#]} 34. Rd4 $6 {[%emt 0:01:24]} Rea8
{[%emt 0:06:17]} 35. Nec2 {[%emt 0:00:15]} Nd7 {[%emt 0:01:29]} 36. c4 {
[%emt 0:03:13]} c5 {[%emt 0:01:55]} 37. bxc5 {[%emt 0:05:51]} Nxc5 {[%emt 0:00:
02]} 38. Qc3 {[%emt 0:00:07]} Bf8 {[%emt 0:01:25]} 39. R4d2 {[%emt 0:00:52]} b6
{[%emt 0:00:30]} 40. Qe3 {[%emt 0:02:02]} Kh7 {[%emt 0:00:33]} 41. Bg3 {
[%emt 0:19:44]} Bh6 {[%emt 0:08:54]} 42. Bf4 $2 {[%emt 0:01:22]} Rxa3 $1 {
[%emt 0:04:55]} 43. Nxa3 {[%emt 0:00:07]} Bxf4 {[%emt 0:01:05]} 44. Qxf4 {
[%emt 0:00:05]} Rxa3 {[%emt 0:00:06]} 45. h4 {[%emt 0:04:38]} Bf7 $19 {[%emt 0:
08:38]} 46. Kh1 {[%emt 0:06:55]} Kg7 {[%emt 0:01:38]} 47. Rc2 {[%emt 0:11:09]}
Nd3 {[%emt 0:06:41]} 48. Qd2 {[%emt 0:00:11]} Qd6 {[%emt 0:02:54]} 49. Rb1 {
[%emt 0:00:55]} Qg3 {[%emt 0:14:02]} 50. Rb3 {[%emt 0:00:08]} Qxh4+ {[%emt 0:
00:16]} 51. Kg1 Rxb3 {[%emt 0:00:19]} 52. axb3 Nc5 {[%emt 0:01:50]} 53. b4 {
[%emt 0:03:32]} Ne6 {[%emt 0:00:05]} 54. c5 {[%emt 0:00:16]} bxc5 {[%emt 0:00:
06]} 55. bxc5 {[%emt 0:00:04]} Qg3 {[%emt 0:00:31]} 56. Qf2 {[%emt 0:01:58]}
Qe5 {[%emt 0:00:06]} 57. c6 {[%emt 0:03:16]} Nd4 {[%emt 0:03:10]} 58. Rd2 {
[%emt 0:01:49]} Nxc6 {[%emt 0:00:07]} 59. Rd7 {[%emt 0:01:10]} Nb8 {[%emt 0:00:
32]} 60. Rd8 {[%emt 0:02:12]} Nc6 {[%emt 0:01:50]} 61. Rd7 {[%emt 0:00:12]} Nb8
{[%emt 0:01:08]} 62. Rd8 {[%emt 0:00:05]} c5 {[%emt 0:00:03]} 63. Rc8 {[%emt 0:
01:59]} Nd7 {[%emt 0:03:55]} 64. Qd2 {[%emt 0:00:27]} Nb6 {[%emt 0:07:15]} 65.
Rc6 {[%emt 0:04:32]} Nc4 {[%emt 0:00:05]} 66. Qd8 {[%emt 0:00:35]} Qd4+ {
[%emt 0:04:29]} 67. Qxd4 {[%emt 0:00:05]} cxd4 {[%emt 0:00:04]} 68. Kf2 {
[%emt 0:00:23]} d3 {[%emt 0:00:31]} 69. Rc8 {[%emt 0:04:08]} h4 {[%emt 0:00:39]
} 70. Rd8 {[%emt 0:01:14]} d2 {[%emt 0:00:06]} 71. Ke2 {[%emt 0:00:05]} g5 {
[%emt 0:01:14]} 72. Rc8 {[%emt 0:03:27]} Kg6 {[%emt 0:00:06]} 73. Rd8 {[%emt 0:
00:33]} Be6 {[%emt 0:00:11]} 74. Kf2 {[%emt 0:00:31]} Kf7 {[%emt 0:00:19]} 75.
Ke2 {[%emt 0:00:21]} Ke7 {[%emt 0:00:11]} 76. Rd4 {[%emt 0:00:08]} Bd7 {
[%emt 0:01:33]} 0-1
[/pgn]

David regularly hosts chess24 commentary of major tournaments, such as the 2020/21 Candidates.

[pgn]
[Event “GBR-ch 102nd”]
[Site “Coventry”]
[Date “2015.07.28”]
[Round “2”]
[White “Storey, Charles”]
[Black “Howell, David W L”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “B11”]
[WhiteElo “2245”]
[BlackElo “2698”]
[Annotator “Sagar Shah”]
[PlyCount “50”]
[EventDate “2015.07.27”]
[EventType “swiss”]
[EventRounds “11”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “CBM 167 Extra”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2015.09.14”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2015.09.14”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,50,33,25,66,68,66,32,83,51,125,127,143,95,111,55,61,-9,-7,-22,-26,-19,
-19,-18,-18,-27,-21,-38,-52,-79,-55,-166,-142,-144,-124,-113,-68,-64,-152,-201,
-159,-136,-148,-167,-169,-186,-196,-231,-248,-234,-29986,-29987,-29988]} 1. e4
c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Nf3 Bg4 4. h3 Bh5 5. exd5 cxd5 6. g4 Bg6 7. Ne5 Nc6 8. Nxg6
hxg6 9. Bg2 e6 10. d4 Bd6 $15 (10… Bb4 11. O-O Nf6) 11. Be3 $146 (11. Ne2 Qc7
) 11… Rc8 12. Qd3 Nf6 13. Qb5 a6 14. Qe2 Qb6 15. O-O Qxb2 16. Nxd5 Nxd5 17.
Bxd5 Nxd4 18. Bxd4 Qxd4 19. Bxe6 {Diagram [#]} Qf4 $3 {As if absolutely
nothing is threatened, David moves his queen to f4. It’s mate in one but White
has his move. He can pick up the rook with check and then defend with f3. What
does black have up his sleeve after that?} (19… fxe6 $2 20. Qxe6+ Kd8 (20…
Kf8 21. Qxc8+ $18) 21. Rad1 $18) (19… O-O $6 20. Bxc8 $14) 20. Bd5+ {Charles
decide to give this check but now he is quickly mated.} ({The most critical
line is} 20. Bxc8+ Kf8 21. f3 {[#] The only move which prevents mate.} (21.
Rfd1 Qh2+ 22. Kf1 Qh1#) 21… Rxh3 $3 {It’s extremely difficult to see this
calm move. The rook and queen are menacingly placed but it is the bishop who
is going to deliver the coup de grace with a check on c5. It’s impossible to
stop that check. Here are some lines:} 22. Qf2 {This prevents Bc5 but now it
will be a mate down the h-file.} (22. Rf2 Qg3+ 23. Rg2 Bc5+ 24. Kf1 Rh1+ 25.
Rg1 Qxg1#) (22. Rfd1 Bc5+ 23. Kf1 Rh1+ 24. Kg2 Qh2#) 22… Rg3+ $1 23. Kh1 (23.
Kh2 Qh6#) 23… Qh6+ 24. Qh2 Rg1+ $1 25. Rxg1 Qxh2# {A pretty little finish.})
20… Kf8 21. Rfd1 Rxh3 {The threat is Rh1 Bxh1 Qh2 followed by Qxh1#.} 22. Qe4
Qf6 $1 (22… Qh2+ 23. Kf1 Rg3 $1 {is something only computer can find.} 24.
fxg3 Rxc2 $19) 23. Re1 Bc5 24. Kg2 Qxf2+ 25. Kxh3 Bd6 {A very nice finish.
Mate on g3 and h2 both cannot be averted.} 0-1
[/pgn]

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpfIfj0iPIs[/embedyt]

[pgn]
[Event “Gibraltar Masters 17th”]
[Site “Caleta”]
[Date “2019.01.31”]
[Round “10”]
[White “Aronian, Levon”]
[Black “Howell, David W L”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “B13”]
[WhiteElo “2767”]
[BlackElo “2685”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “58”]
[EventDate “2019.01.22”]
[EventType “swiss”]
[EventRounds “10”]
[EventCountry “GGB”]
[SourceTitle “CBM 188 Extra”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2019.02.26”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2019.02.26”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,58,27,25,68,69,57,51,59,29,29,8,57,9,28,1,9,-4,-7,6,-5,-45,-37,-122,
-97,-180,-133,-133,-170,-160,-133,-139,-130,-128,-127,-162,-149,-278,-288,-279,
-253,-272,-301,-303,-276,-318,-297,-311,-297,-331,-316,-332,-349,-336,-338,
-353,-327,-333,-327,-635,-335]} 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. Bd3 Nc6 5. c3
Qc7 {Tartakower} 6. h3 {The trendy line in the exchange variation. White makes
it awkard for black to develop the c8 bishop.} g6 {is the main alternative to .
..Nf6 Black may be preparing …Bf5} ({alternatively} 6… Nf6 7. Ne2 e5 8.
dxe5 Nxe5 9. Bc2 Bd6 10. Nd4 Bd7 11. O-O O-O {and Black is not worse.}) 7. Qc2
{[#]} (7. Nf3 Bf5 8. O-O Nf6 9. Re1 Bxd3 10. Qxd3 Bg7 11. Nbd2 O-O 12. Ne5 Nxe5
13. dxe5 Nd7) 7… f6 $5 {is the engine’s move of choice preparing the
thematic Caro-Kann e5 break.} 8. Ne2 e5 9. O-O Nge7 10. dxe5 $6 (10. Na3) 10…
fxe5 11. c4 $6 {This whole idea looks to be incorrectly evaluated.} e4 $1 12.
Bxe4 (12. Qc3 exd3 13. Qxd3) 12… dxe4 13. Nbc3 Bg7 $17 14. Nd5 Qd6 15. Bf4
Be5 16. Rad1 Bxf4 17. Ndxf4 Qe5 18. b4 {In for a penny, in for a euro…} Nxb4
19. Qb3 Nbc6 20. c5 Qxc5 21. Nc3 Qb4 $19 {Black is winning} 22. Qc2 O-O 23.
Ncd5 Nxd5 24. Nxd5 Qa3 25. Rfe1 Bf5 26. Re3 Qa5 27. Qc4 Rf7 28. Nf6+ Kg7 29.
Rd5 Be6 0-1
[/pgn]