BCN sends best wishes to IM John James Cox on his birthday, this day, in 1962.
John was born in Altrincham, Trafford, Greater Manchester and moved to Shropshire at the age of three.
John attended Eton College playing top board in the Sunday Times National Schools Competition during the 1977 – 1979 period.
John read classics at Corpus Christi College, Oxford and played in the 1982, 1983 and 1984 varsity matches for Oxford versus Cambridge.
He became a FIDE Master in 1982, an International Master in 2002 and obtained a peak rating of 2423 in January of 2006.
John is a solicitor, owning his own practice of 30 years.
He is an expert bridge player and an amateur rock climber / mountaineer.
John plays for Cavendish in the London League, Hackney in other leagues and Barbican in the Four Nations Chess League (4NCL).
From the excellent Shropshire Chess web site we have :
“Probably the best home reared player to come out of the county, John Cox started to play at age 6 with his father Jeff (see above) joining Shrewsbury Chess Club at age 7. At age10 he became joint Shropshire lightning champion. He was 16 when he won the 1979 county championship though much of his early success was outside the county. He gained his first FM norm at the 1980 Lloyds Bank Masters where he became the first Shropshire player to beat a GM (see below), also drawing with IM’s Ligterink and Pytel. In 1981 he gained his third norm and the FM title at Ramsgate together with his first IM norm. Though now based in London, he is still a regular visitor to the local Wrekin Congress.”
Here is his Wikipedia entry