At a televised awards show for Britain's most talented youngsters, he was presented an award by Patrick Moore. Progress was perhaps more measured during his early to mid-teens, but Howell continued to meet all the milestone challenges, first gaining the International Master title, and culminating in becoming a grandmaster at the age of sixteen, the youngest ever in the UK. Along the way, he performed well at the Hastings knockout-style tournament (2004–5 edition), where he was eliminated at the quarter-final (round 5) stage by the strong Polish GM Bartosz Soćko. Despite his sustained efforts at the chequered board, he continued to study for his French, German (fluent in both) and Maths A-levels, at Eastbourne College. He obtained the three norms required for the title Grandmaster (GM) between 2004 and 2007; these comprised the 4NCL team tournament (season 2004/5), the CCA-ICC International at New York City 2005 and Stockholm's Rilton Cup 2006/7. In this latter tournament he tied for second place, qualifying for the grandmaster title on 5 January 2007, aged 16. By doing so, Howell broke Luke McShane's record as the youngest grandmaster ever from the UK, set in 2000, by six months. 2007–present day: Tournament success and continued rating climb Since becoming a grandmaster in 2007, Howell has participated in a variety of competitions; he took a share of fourth place in the British championship that year and went on to scoop the English Chess Federation's Player of the Year Award. A significant rise in his Elo rating followed his achievements of 2008, beginning with victory at the Andorra Open, where he scored 8/9 points, ahead of experienced grandmasters Julio Granda Zuñiga and Mihail Marin. He followed this with a share of third place at the World Junior Chess Championship in Gaziantep, where he was always challenging for the lead. At the very strong EU Individual Open Chess Championship in Liverpool he finished with a share of fifth place despite a loss on time and then went on to win the annual Winterthur Masters event, ahead of other grandmasters, among them former Paraguayan champion Axel Bachmann and former Swiss champions Joseph Gallagher and Florian Jenni. At the Chess Olympiad of 2008, held in Dresden, he joined the England team on board 3 and contributed 7½/11 for a tournament performance rating (TPR) of 2675. Howell was the British Rapidplay Chess Champion in 2008 with a score of 10/11 points, and