Carl Portman MBE is a chess columnist author, coach and player. He is a former county champion (Shropshire) and former UK Armed Forces Chess Association veteran Champion who played three times in the NATO Chess Championships, captaining the UK in America. He was awarded an MBE in the 2026 Honours list for his outstanding work with chess in prisons and later that year awarded an Honorary Doctorate for Social Rehabilitation and Penology by the Avicenna (Ibn Sina) Foundation. He lives in Oxfordshire with his wife Susan and two border collie dogs. Carl is an amateur arachnologist and photographer and his motto is ‘Don’t complain about the darkness, light a few candles.’
