David Norwood

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David Norwood
David Norwood (2012)
Full name	David Robert Norwood
Country	England Andorra
Born	3 October 1968 (1968-10-03) (age 56) Farnworth, near Bolton, Lancashire, England
Title	Grandmaster (1989)
FIDE rating	2494 (November 2024)
Peak rating	2545 (July 1994)

David Robert Norwood (born 3 October 1968) is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who is also a chess player - grandmaster, chess writer, former captain of the English chess team and has represented England and Andorra at chess.

The son of an electrician, Norwood graduated with a history degree from Keble College, Oxford in 1988 before joining city investment bank Banker's Trust in 1991.

Norwood cofounded Oxford Sciences Innovation, a £1.2bn investment firm dedicated to creating deep science world changing companies from Oxford University, and was its CEO from 2015 to 2019. Formerly he was founder of IP Group plc, a fund that invested in spinoffs from Oxford University's Chemistry department, in exchange for 50% of the revenues from the licensing of the department's intellectual property.^[1]

In 2017, Norwood donated £1.9M to Keble College's future hub Archived 26 April 2018 at the Wayback Machine for innovation at Oxford University.^[2]

FIDE awarded Norwood the International Master title in 1985 and the International Grandmaster title in 1989. He is less active as an over-the-board player these days, but maintains a strong interest in chess as a member of the Internet Chess Club. He has on a number of occasions captained, managed, or sponsored the England squad in major team events such as the Chess Olympiad.

Norwood has written several books including Winning with the Modern (the Modern Defence being a favorite opening of his) and Steve Davis plays Chess (co-authored with Steve Davis). He has also written many articles on chess for The Daily Telegraph.

He also made a large donation in 2001 to the British Chess Federation to assist with the development of junior chess.

In the following game, Norwood's hypermodern opening leads to an old-fashioned king hunt:

Norwood-Marsh, Walsall 1992^[3]

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Position after 27...f5

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Final position

• Norwood, David (1991). King's Indian Attack. Trends Publications.
• Norwood, David (1995). The Modern Benoni. Cadogan. ISBN 91-976005-2-0.
• Norwood, David (1995). Chess Puzzles. Henry Holt and Company, Inc. ISBN 0-8050-4226-1.

• David Norwood rating card at FIDE
• David Norwood player profile and games at Chessgames.com