Born in London, he was joint British Under-18 Champion in 1966, and fourth in the European Junior Championship in 1969.
For a brief period of time in the late 1970s he was a professional player. At one tournament he was assigned a lady translator whom he ended up marrying.
Webb was famous for his humorous instructional book Chess for Tigers (1978) and his ability to sometimes save seemingly hopeless games.
In the 1980s, he moved to Sweden and all but gave up OTB play after he took up correspondence chess. He was awarded the Correspondence GM title in 1983.
His 25-year-old son, Dennis was described by friends as having an explosive temper and he had a long history of arrests for drug related offenses. At the time of the murder he had just finished serving a four year prison sentence. After murdering his father Dennis tried to commit suicide by driving the family car into a bus shelter at 80-85 mph (about 130kph). He had to be cut from the wreckage by the fire department, but survived with only a broken nose.
The Swedish police reported that Webb had suffered more than 20 knife wounds to his stomach after being overcome by his son in the early morning hours.
Police had no idea what the motive was, but according to one report Mrs. Webb heard her husband screaming and came out into the hall to see he had been stabbed repeatedly. She told police that her son had admitted the killing to her before taking the keys to the family car and driving off. Another report stated that she had actually witnessed the attack. Webb’s wife, Anna, suffered from mental trauma and had to be treated in a Stockholm hospital.
Webb wrote about the following game against Reshevsky in his book Chess for Tigers and said that throughout the game he was being subjected to Reshevsky's cigarette smoke and his annoying behavior and knew he was losing.
In the mid-1960s I met the infamous Norman Whitaker at a tournament in North Carolina and when Reshevsky’s name cane up in a group conversation Whitaker said, “Reshevsky wouldn’t help anybody.”
I saw Reshevsky at play many tines and can attest to the fact that his behavior at the board was not always gentlemanly! Still, the $50 I paid him to play me in an “instructional” correspondence game which I drew was the highlight of my career. Or, maybe it was getting Max Euwe’s autograph, probably in 1957.
In this game Webb wrote that at move 30 he spotted a tactic that could only work if Reshevsky played his Queen to d7. He thought that if he quickly played his move, Reshevsky would become suspicious and find the trap, so Webb took a few minutes thinking and shaking his head, sighing and trying to give the impression that his game was hopeless.
Then when Webb hesitantly played his move Reshevsky looked at him and with a smug smile, fell for the trick and then Webb replied quickly for psychological effect. Reshevsky sat upright, looked at the position and realized what had just happened, played his move and then offered a draw which Webb quickly refused.
Simon Webb2445–Samuel Reshevsky1–0E69Guardian Royal Exchange, LondonLondon ENG14.12.1973Stockfish 16
E69: King's Indian: Fianchetto Variation 1.f3 f6 2.c4 g6 3.c3 g7 4.g3 0-0 5.g2 d6 6.d4 bd7 7.0-0 e5 8.e4 c6 9.h3 b6 10.d5 c5 11.e1 cxd5 12.cxd5 d7 13.b1 a5 So far this has been pretty much all book, but now
the game has reached a point where book lines are pretty this. Here, in
addition to the move played, white has tried 14.Be3 14.f1 fc8 15.e3 d8 16.d2 a4 16...e8 17.h2 f5 18.f3 f4 19.gxf4 h4 with equal chances.
Exler,V (2189)-Stockova,Z (2383) Tromso NOR 2014 16...b5 17.xc5 xc5 18.b3 cc8 19.xb5 a4 The position is equal. Kekki,J (2255) -Lanzendoerfer,J
(2210) Stockholm 1988 17.b4 axb3 18.axb3 e8 19.b4 d3 20.xd3 xc3 21.c4 b5 22.b2 This is where Webb goes wrong. Black gets the upper hand
owing to his control of the Q-side. 22.xe5 At first glance this appears
to win a P, but it loses a piece after a4 23.xf7 xf7 24.d2 22.c1
eliminating the black R keeps things equal. xc1 23.xc1 xc4 24.xc4
with complete equality. 22...xd3 23.xd3 d7 23...f6 attacking the
e-Pawn was even better. 24.c1 c8 Controls the c-file and attacks the
h-Pawn. 25.h2 h5 26.b2 c4 and bliack is clearly better. 24.h2 f6 25.g5 xe4 26.xe4 f5 27.e3 But not 27.d2? xd3!
28.e2 28.xd3? perishes. xf2+ 29.h1 a2-+ 28...d4 29.xd4 exd4-+ 27.g4 xg4 28.hxg4 xd3 29.c4 27...xg5 28.a1 ac8 29.a7 f5 Not really bad at all as black still has a
winning position, but now Webb's theatrics began as he visably agonized over
his next move. 29...e4 us actually nstringer plus it avoids Wenn's coming
psychol;ogocal trap. 30.xe4 30.f4 c1 31.e2 8c2 with a easy win...
the Q has nowhere to go. 32.b5 xf2+ 33.g2 xe3 30...f5 30.f3
In reality this move is actually white's best chance. 30.xb7 is easily
met by xd3 31.xd3 xf2+ 32.h1 c2 33.b8+ f8 34.xc2 xc2 35.f3 e4 36.g2 xd5 and black will have no trouble scoring the point. 30...d7
This saves the P, but yields the advantage. 30...h5 This maintains a
winning position, but play gets a bit tricky. 31.xb7 h6 31...e4 would
be a serious mistake. 32.fxf7 f8 33.xh5 gxh5 34.f4 with a completely
equal posirtion. 32.bxf7 e4 33.e1 xd3 34.xe4 xf3 35.xf3 e5 36.xe5 dxe5 37.b5 c2 38.d6 b2 39.d7 g5 40.g2 xb5 41.d3 d8 Black has
a won ending. 30...e4 This is black's best reply. 31.xb7 h6 32.bxf7 32.fxf7 xd3 33.g4 xg4 34.hxg4 f8 35.xh7 xf2+ 36.h3 f8 37.g5 37.b5 dd2 38.g5 h2+ 39.g4 xh7 37...e4 secures the win. 32...xd3 33.xd3 xd3 34.xd3 xf7 wins the ending. 31.c5 Black is not lost
after this, but now it's white who has a significant advantage. 8xc5 32.bxc5 xc5 White has won the exchange and has a winning advantage, but there is
still a lot of work to do before he scores the point. Webb's endgame play is
impeccable though. 33.b1 b5 34.xb7 xb1 35.xb1 c8 36.b7 f5 37.a3 e4 38.g2 38.aa7 e5 39.g2 d4 40.a6 e5 41.c6
has transposed into the game. 38...d4 39.a6 e5 40.c6 Of course the R
cannot be taken. f8 41.cc7 g5 Reshevsky gives up a P in hopes of getting
some active play. After 41...h5 white has what is technically a won game and
in Shootouts scored 5-0, but it wasn't so easy. Check out how Stpckfish played
the game after 41...h5 at 19 plies. 41...h5 42.h4 e8 43.d7 a8 44.e7 f8 45.f7+ g8 46.fe7 f8 47.h7 c8 48.hf7+ g8 49.fe7 f8 50.e6 c2 51.f1 c1+ 52.e2 c2+ 53.f1 c1+ 54.e2 c2+ 55.e3 c3+ 56.d2 d3+ 57.e2 xd5 58.xg6 a5 59.g5 a2+ 60.f1 f4 61.f5+ g8 62.gxf4 d4 63.g5+ f8 64.b4 xf2 65.xh5 f7 66.xe4 c5 67.f5 a1+ 68.g2 a2+ 69.f3 a3+ 70.f4 d5 71.e6 a4+ 72.f3 a3+ 73.g4 a4+ 74.f3 a3+ 75.e2 a2+ 76.d1 a1+ 77.c2 a2+ 78.b1 a4 79.h7+ f8 80.c7 b4+ 81.c2 d4 82.c8+ g7 83.c7+ f8 84.h5 b8 85.h6 g8 86.f6 f8 87.f7+ h7 88.e8 xf7 89.xf7+ g6 90.f3 a1 91.g8+ h7 92.g2 d4 93.f7+ h8 94.d3 c3 95.h7 a1 96.g8# 42.xh7+- f4 43.gxf4 gxf4 44.f3 e3 45.f1 a8 46.a7 b8 47.hb7 c8 48.a2 h8 49.e2 g8 50.d3 h8 51.e4 e8 52.e2 f8 53.d7 g8 54.h4 h8 55.h5 g8 56.g2+ h8 57.e7 a8 58.f5 f8+ 59.e4 b8 60.f7 e8 61.e2 g8 62.c7 f8 63.ec2 f6 64.d3 64.c8+ was a bit more precise. After g7 65.2c7+ f7 65...h6 66.h8+ g5 67.g7+ 66.xf7+ xf7 with a routin win. 64...f5 65.e4 f6 65...xh5 was not really any better. 66.d7 g7 67.g2 h7 68.d3 and black is out of moves. 66.c8+ h7 Black could have put up a
stouter defense with 66...Kg7, but he still loses. 66...g7 67.2c7+ f7 68.h6+ g6 69.xf7 xf7 67.2c7+! h6 The beginning of a long trek! 68.h8+ g5 69.g8+ h6 70.h8+ g5 71.g7+ h4 72.g4+ h3 73.c8 f7 74.c1 h2 75.c2+ h1 76.gg2 c3? 77.ge2 Black resigned. A well deserved
win for Webb! In the auto-annotation Stockfish evaluated Reshevsky's play as
precise, but Webb's as very precise! 1–0
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