Born in Glasgow and raised in Dundee, he became World Cadet (Under 17) Champion in 1978, and won the first of his seven Scottish Championship titles that year.
He made his first two Grandmaster norms at the 1986 and 1988 Olympiads, then faced a race against time to achieve his third before the first one expired in 1991.
He just failed to reach the required number of points in a hastily organised tournament in Dundee days before the deadline.
Ironically, FIDE changed the rules shortly after this, and reset the expiry time for norms at six years.
His writings are known for his use of acronyms to remember key concepts and some of the non-chess 'general puzzle' content (including 'Mr Fab' the alien).