He was tipped to reach the heights scaled by such other leading English players as Michael Adams and Nigel Short but made the decision to cease playing professionally in his mid 20s, opting for an IT career in the Netherlands.

He won the event with a perfect score of 7/7, finishing ahead of grandmasters Jan Timman, Friso Nijboer and Daniel Fridman.

In August 2011, Sadler continued his resurgence by winning the XIII Open Internacional D'Escacs de Sants, scoring 8½/10, ahead of several grandmasters including Jan Smeets.

Right thereafter, in October 2011, he went on to compete in the Oslo Chess International; participants included ten other grandmasters, among them Sergei Tiviakov, Jon Ludvig Hammer and Sergey Volkov, all being 2600+ rated.

He contrasts his present lighthearted attitude with his demeanor during his time as a professional, when he was "working ten hours a day and incredibly intensively".