The Comfort Zone: Keys to Your Chess Success

Have you ever wondered why you do well in certain tournaments and not in others? If your opening choices are the right ones? If your attacking play is good, bad, or Tinder swipe left ugly?

In this entertaining account, the author explains how to achieve success in chess we need to understand our what works for us, but to achieve true mastery we should prepare to go beyond our zone of comfort. 

Along the way he takes us on a journey through his own world of discovery and explains how he became one of the best chess players in England. It’s a deeply honest and at times tragicomic memoir as he also reveals his strategy for taking on his biggest rivals and how best to use computers to improve your chess. 

Born 04/05/1976

Currently living in Alnwick, Northumberland, England.

Daniel has been a chess professional for over twenty years, in which time he has played in many tournaments both in the U.K. and abroad. He has represented England in the European team championships and the Olympiad. Daniel has taken high placing in the British chess championships and on several occasions has placed in a tie for second. He is also the two times winner of the English rapid play championships.

In 2005 he scored his final Grandmaster norm in a tournament in Gibraltar, where he scored a 2693 performance. In that tournament he played against several world-class grandmasters, including Nakamura, Aronian, Sutovsky and Dreev, and only lost one game.

 He is also the author of several well-received chess books, including a year in the chess world and mating the castled king, one of the few western chess books in recent years to be translated into Chinese.

As a writer he is known for his laid-back and humorous style.