Grandmaster Growl

Nigel Davies

Nigel Davies is an International Chess Grandmaster living in Southport in the UK. Born in 1960, Nigel has more than 35 years experience of tournament chess during which time he has visited over 30 different countries.

He has won 15 international tournaments plus the British Rapidplay (1987) and U21 (1979) titles. These days he competes mainly in domestic UK events and teaches the game through books, DVDs, internet radio and private tuition.

Besides his professional involvement in chess, Nigel worked as a trader from 2003 to 2007, mainly daytrading S&P 500 futures. His approach was inspired mainly by Victor Niederhoffer’s statistical methodology, combining it with his board game experience and eye for patterns.

Nigel’s main activity outside chess and markets is the practice of several forms of Qigong, mainly   Zhan Zhuang (’standing like a tree’). In accordance with ancient Chinese wisdom (and untypically for a chess GM), he usually gets up at around 5am to perform the various routines.

Born into a musical family Nigel’s tastes have strayed somewhat from these classical origins, though he does like minimalist composers such as Ludovico Einaudi and Eric Satie. Having said that his favourite song is Shivaree’s Goodnight Moon which featured in Kill Bill 2.

Other interests include personal liberty (a belief that we should own our own lives), swimming, walking, reading and cinema.

Nigel’s has a 7 year old called Sam. His interests include public transport, board games and penguins.