Jonathan Speelman

Jonathan Speelman was born in 1956 and graduated from Worcester College Oxford, where he read mathematics. He became an IM and a professional chess player in 1977, a GM in 1980 and was a member of the English Olympic team from 1980–2006. Three times British Champion he played twice in the Candidates, reaching the semi-final (of what was then a knockout series of matches) in 1989 when he lost 4.5-3.5 to Jan Timman. He was twice a second to a world championship challenger: Nigel Short and then Viswanathan Anand against Garry Kasparov in London 1993 and New York 1995.

Jon has written for The Observer (weekly) since 1993 and The Independent since 1998. With its closure (going online, but without Jon on board) he is expanding online activity and is also now offering online tuition. He likes puzzles, especially (cryptic) crosswords and killer sudokus. If you'd like to contact Jon, then please write to jonathan@speelman.demon.co.uk

Recent news

Bring your own bottle and fork

1/16/2022 – Years ago the great Mikhail Tal pithily expounded a critical aspect of all out attacking chess, noting that it is only possible to capture one piece at a time. In full battle cry, Tal’s instinct was not to retreat attacked pieces, especially minor pieces — but to pour more oil on the fire by putting further units en prise! Jonathan Speelman explores this theme using games by Tal and Fischer, as well as more recent examples. | Pictured: Fischer and Tal in Zurich, 1959 / Photo via skaksogufelagid.is

Battles in Hastings

1/2/2022 – Jon Speelman looks forwards and backwards as we enter the new year, looking at a game between Magnus Carlsen and World Rapid Champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov after recapping what went on in 2021. He also analyses three games from previous editions of the traditional Hastings Tournament, incluidng one of his, in which he played his “most outrageous move ever”! | Photo: Nigel Short, Lev Psakhis and Jon Speelman in Hastings (c. 1987) / Nigel Short’s Facebook page

Boxing in White City

12/19/2021 – The recent World Championship appears in hindsight to have been very one-sided, with Ian Nepomniachtchi’s collapse being dramatic but far from unprecedented. Thinking about collapses, star columnist Jon Speelman went back to the famous battle between Viktor Korchnoi (pictured) and Boris Spassky in Belgrade 1977!

Single battles

12/6/2021 – Match chess is very different from tournament play and, with no respite from your only enemy, considerably more stressful. The first game of a World Championship is a huge deal even for the defending champion (who has played championship matches before) and more so for debutants. In an excellent column, Jon Speelman looks at four first games from matches for the crown, all played between 1954 and 1972. | Pictured: Mikhail Tal | Photo: Bert Verhoeff, Anefo

The hacking of steely sprogs

11/21/2021 – In this week’s column, Jon Speelman returns to his explorations of remarkable games by the world’s top juniors. Naturally, he looks at games by Kirill Shevchenko (pictured), Arjun Erigaisi and Alireza Firouzja, three young stars who left a strong mark in top tournaments during the last month or so. | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich

The joy of endgames

11/7/2021 – All chess analysis, and that of endgames in particular, has been transformed in recent years by computer technology. Not only can you turn an engine on to get an instant assessment, which is generally fairly correct, but when you get down to seven pieces, then you have the ear of God — or rather an omniscient tablebase. In today’s column, we look at two fascinating endgames from the Grand Swiss in Riga. | Photo: Mark Livshitz

Monarchs and ubersprogs

10/17/2021 – Star columnist Jon Speelman looks at the next generation of chess stars, presenting games from Aleksandra Goryachkina, Andrey Esipenko and Nihal Sarin. Speelman notes that “the interesting thing with young players is not only how well they can play at their peak, but also, and no less important, howe well they can play at their ambient level”. | Pictured: Andrey Esipenko and Zhansaya Abdmualik at this year’s World Cup in Sochi. | Photo: Anastassia Korolkova / FIDE

Jon Speelman: The joys of Codgerdom

10/3/2021 – Yesterday, 2 October 2021, Jon Speelman turned 65. Congratulations! The English Grandmaster and former World Championship Candidate, who in January 1989 was the world’s number four, used this occasion to look back on his career and to select some of the most interesting games he played as an up-and-coming player. | Photo: David Llada

Do pawns disregard Einstein?

9/19/2021 – A pawn promotion is a huge event in a chess game, as the energy garnered by the pawn advancing up the board is transformed in a most un-Einsteinian way (surely a pawn’s advance doesn’t create that much energy) into serious amounts of matter. Star columnist Jon Speelman looks at overwhelming pawn avalanches, and analyses a game in which Albert Einstein got the better of Robert Oppenheimer. | Pictured: Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer in 1947

The patter of tiny feet

9/5/2021 – The humble pawn is the foot soldier of chess. A single passed pawn may be a huge threat if well-supported, but can also become a liability if not. Today we look at some instances of pawn “avalanches”, in which the patter of tiny feet became thunder. | Pictured: Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais

Initiating fission

8/15/2021 – In this week’s column, Jon Speelman looks at the dichotomy between energy and matter in chess. While some players choose material, others go for dynamism. To illustrate his points, Speelman analyses two recent wins by Magnus Carlsen and an early game by Mikhail Tal, in which he was able to recover and win from a material disadvantage “of a mere two knights”! | Pictured: Tal at the 1964 Amsterdam Interzonal | Photo: Harry Pot / Anefo

Blood pudding

8/2/2021 – When you look at games by very strong positional players, you may get the impression that they don’t like tactics and are perhaps not corruscatingly good at them. But this is almost always a mirage. Star columnist Jon Speelman looks at three excellent attacking wins by world champion Magnus Carlsen. | Photo: Anastasiia Korolkova / FIDE World Cup

The Norwegian Bishops’ new wood

7/18/2021 – In his third column examining who is the best chess player in history — and his 150th overall — Jon Speelman fast forwards to the present champion, Magnus Carlsen. Speelman considers that Carlsen’s greatest strength is in the endgame, and dares to call him the best ever for this stage of the game. | Photo: Anastasiia Korolkova / FIDE World Cup

A few reflections more (and a cocktail of Caissists)

7/4/2021 – Star columnist Jon Speelman reactivates his “mirror”, a potent if imaginary artefact intended to reflect the best chess players ever. This week, a couple of games by Garry Kasparov, “an (un)caged tiger who revels in violent conflict”. | Pictured: Kasparov with ChessBase’s Matthias Wüllenweber

Mirror mirror on the wall...

6/20/2021 – A comment in the previous column prompted Jon Speelman to share with the readers which players he considers to be the best to have ever lived. He starts with Bobby Fischer, whom he characterizes as having “precise power”; and with Anatoly Karpov — “deft control”. Chime in your thoughts in the comments section and, if you like, characterize your favourite players’ styles in a couple of words! | Artwork: Unknown (via Quora)

Overthinking the silence

6/6/2021 – Often times during a chess game you have to make a choice between waiting and initiating concrete action. Star columnist Jon Speelman notes that “this eerie silence before battle is perhaps the most difficult moment psychologically”, and goes on to show how even world champion Magnus Carlsen can take a wrong turn from time to time. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

Pearly Kings

5/16/2021 – Looking at the games from the recent Russian Team Championship, played in Sochi, prompted Jon Speelman to reminisce on a tournament he played nearly four decades ago in the same Russian city near the Black Sea. “In those distant Soviet times, the seven foreigners were put up in the Zhemchuzhina (Pearl) Hotel while the nine Soviets were dispersed among other lesser establishments”. | Photo: John Saunders / John Nunn 60th Birthday Blitz Chess Tournament

Raising the floor: Nepo's chances against Carlsen

5/2/2021 – Now that we know that Ian Nepomniachtchi will be Magnus Carlsen’s next challenger for the World Championship title, it’s time to start getting ready for the big match. Star columnist Jon Speelman has another go at prediction, claiming that “Carlsen is surely the favourite, but not, I think, by that much: no more than 60-40, and perhaps just 55-45”. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
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