William Roland Hartston was born on 12 August 1947 and is an English journalist who has written the Beachcomber column in the Daily Express since 1998.
10 Facts About William Hartston
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William Hartston is a chess player who played competitively from 1962 to 1987 and earned a highest Elo rating of 2485.
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William Hartston was awarded the title International Master in 1972, but is best known as a chess author and presenter of the game on television.
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William Hartston won the British Chess Championship in 1973 and 1975.
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William Hartston became the first person to stack the pieces from an entire chess set on top of a single white rook.
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William Hartston studied mathematics at Jesus College, Cambridge but did not complete his PhD on number theory as he spent too much time playing chess.
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William Hartston twice won the BBC's The Master Game competition before taking over from Leonard Barden as its resident expert.
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Leonard Barden 8.
William Hartston has been a regular guest on the BBC Radio 4 and occasional TV programme, Puzzle Panel and appeared in Series 8 of The Museum of Curiosity on Radio 4.
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William Hartston's latest publication is A Brief History of Puzzles: 120 of the World's Most Baffling Brainteasers from the Sphinx to Sudoku.
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William Hartston was the first of three British chess champions to be married to Woman Grandmaster Jana Bellin.