About David

The oldest of 5 children, David was born in London and lived in 15 countries before settling in Australia. He attended Melbourne High School and half-way through Year 10 left school to pursue his passion for chess.

While David’s formal schooling finished early he continues to spend time each week immersed in self-study in areas as diverse as Ancient History, Music, Psychology, Marketing and Educational Theories.

His chess playing career started at the Waverley Chess Club in 1991 and led him to become a member of Waverley, Whitehorse, Melbourne, Dandenong and Caulfield chess clubs. Eventually winning the Australian Junior Chess Championships in 1996 and the National U/21 Championships in 1999, David retired from competitive play soon thereafter.

As 16-year-old Chief Arbiter and Organiser of the 1994 Australian Masters, David gained his first International Arbiter norm. He continued to organise successful International Master norm events until 2003.

In 1997 David started Chess Kids, incorporating Chess World retail shop in 1999 and launching a National Interschool Chess Championships in 2002. Today Chess Kids is the largest commercial chess organisation in Australia and provides coaching programs through 645 schools across 4 states and nearly 9000 players participate in Interschool Events.

Perhaps the most significant impact has been in Tasmania. In 2004 only a dozen juniors played chess in the state. Today over 1600 juniors are playing chess and for the first time in 30 years the 2010 Australian Junior Chess Championships will be held in Tasmania.

Since 1997 Chess Kids has taken teams of junior players to Australian Junior Chess Championships. In 2005 a team of 49 juniors played at Mt Buller, comprising nearly 1/3 of the entire field!.

Publicity has always been a big part of what David has done for chess. He has been a contributor to On The Move, Australian Chess Magazine, Knight Times and Editor of Victorian Junior Chess News and Australian Championship and Junior Championship tournament bulletins.

David has been particularly successful bringing chess into the mainstream media; from the 1994 Sports Tonight coverage of the Australian Masters to the 160+ media impressions in major Newspaper, TV and Radio during the last 12 months.

David has succeeded in attracting sponsorships for chess. An $8000 sponsorship for the 2000 Australian Open Rapid Play and the ongoing $25,000 annual Monash University sponsorship for the National Interschool Chess Championships.

David has served at every level of chess administration over the past 15 years; ACF, VCA and CV, VJCL and the Waverley and Whitehorse Chess Clubs. He won the Young Citizen of the Year award in 1997 for “making chess accessible and relevant to young people”.

David lives in East Bentleigh with his partner Kate and two children Elijah and Oliver. He plays competitive basketball and tennis, enjoys woodwork and looks after pet snakes, lizards, frogs and chickens.

Popularity: 41% [?]