In the same year he nearly won the British Chess Championship, figuring in a seven-way play-off at Clacton, but failing to clinch the title at the last hurdle.

Playing in Tjentiste in 1975, he took the bronze medal at the World Junior Championship, finishing behind Valery Chekhov and Larry Christiansen.

In international tournaments, his best early result was equal second at London 1977, tying with Miguel Quinteros and Michael Stean, behind winner Vlastimil Hort.

[7] There were also good results at Esbjerg, where he won the North Sea Cup in 1979 (with Laszlo Vadasz) and finished with a share of second in 1984 (after Nigel Short, with Lars Karlsson).

Aside from his academic and chess activities, he wrote the mainframe computer game Brand X with Peter Killworth, which was later rewritten for Microsoft Windows and released commercially as Philosopher's Quest.