Miguel Illescas Córdoba is a Spanish chess player born in Barcelona. He is married to the great female chess teacher Olga Alexandrova.

He is a specialized journalist, editor of the chess magazine "Peón de Rey" and collaborates daily in the newspaper "La Vanguardia" where he tests readers with different chess moves.

Illescas has founded a chess school "The Chess School of Miguel Illescas " EDAMI in its Spanish abbreviated form. He is a coach, organizes tournaments, simultaneous and other activities related to chess.

In 1986, he obtained the title of international master and in 1988 he became the international grandmaster. In July 1996 he reached an Elo of 2640 points, an was number 30 in the world. Now semi-retired, he remains a top Spanish player.

Miguel Illescas has a universal style of play. In 1996 he was awarded the Silver Medal of the Royal Order of Sports Merit. His computer science background and brilliant chess career got him hired by IBM in 1997 to develop the program of the chess computer Deep Blue, which would defeat Garry Kasparov in May of that same year. Illescas has also served as a trainer of former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik.