Jonathan Simon Speelman (born 2 October 1956) is an English

chess grandmaster Grandmaster (GM) is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is held for life, though exceptionally the t ...

and author.

Early life and education

Jonathan Simon Speelman was born on 2 October 1956 in

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also ) is an area in London, England, and is located in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. Oxford Street forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropo ...

, London. He was educated at

St Paul's School, London St Paul's School is a Selective school, selective Private schools in the United Kingdom, independent day school (with limited boarding school, boarding) for boys aged 13–18, founded in 1509 by John Colet and located on a 43-acre site by Rive ...

, and

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms was ad ...

, where he read mathematics.

Career

A winner of the

British Chess Championship The British Chess Championships are organised by the English Chess Federation. The main tournament incorporates the British Championship, the English Chess Championships and the British Women's Chess Championship so it is possible, although it ha ...

in 1978, 1985 and 1986, Speelman has been a regular member of the English team for the

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in FIDE Onli ...

, an international biennial

chess tournament A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London 1851 chess tournament, London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard ...

organised by

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

, the

World Chess Federation The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the gove ...

. He qualified for two

Candidates Tournament The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The win ...

s: *In the 1989–1990 cycle, Speelman qualified by placing third in the 1987 interzonal tournament held in

Subotica Subotica (, ; , , ) is a List of cities in Serbia, city in Central Europe and the administrative center of the North Bačka District in the autonomous province of Vojvodina, Serbia. Formerly the largest city of Vojvodina region, contemporary Sub ...

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

. After beating

Yasser Seirawan Yasser Seirawan (; born March 24, 1960) is a Syrian-born American chess grandmaster and four-time United States Chess Championship, United States champion. He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1979. Seirawan is also a published chess au ...

in his first round 4–1, and

Nigel Short Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, columnist, coach and commentator who has been the FIDE Director for Chess Development since September 2022. Short earned the title of grandmaster at the ...

in the second round 3½–1½, he lost to

Jan Timman Jan Timman (born 14 December 1951) is a Dutch chess grandmaster who was one of the world's leading chess players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career, he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known a ...

at the semi-final stage 4½–3½. *In the following 1990–93 championship cycle, he lost 5½–4½ in the first round to Short, the eventual challenger for

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...

's crown. In 1989, Speelman beat Kasparov in a televised speed tournament and then went on to win the event. On 7 December 1990, Speelman was featured in an experimental interactive

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

broadcast called ''Your Move'', which was hosted by Rob Curling and commentated by chess writer

William Hartston William Roland Hartston (born 12 August 1947) is an English journalist who has written the Beachcomber column in the ''Daily Express'' since 1998. He is also a chess player who played competitively from 1962 to 1987 and earned a highest Elo ra ...

. In the groundbreaking one-off episode, Speelman was pitted against the audience, who would use a special telephone line to submit their moves, with the move played by the viewers being decided by a democratic vote. Speelman won the match. The broadcast went for approximately three hours, about double the time that it had been scheduled for.

Writing

He has written a number of books on chess, including several on the endgame, among them ''Analysing the Endgame'' (1981), ''Endgame Preparation'' (1981) and ''Batsford Chess Endings'' (co-author, 1993). Among his other books are ''Best Games 1970–1980'' (1982), an analysis of nearly fifty of the best games by top players from that decade, and ''Jon Speelman's Best Games'' (1997). Today he is primarily a chess journalist and commentator, being the chess correspondent for ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' and ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' and sometimes providing commentary for games on the

Internet Chess Club The Internet Chess Club (ICC) is a commercial Internet chess server devoted to the play and discussion of chess and chess variants. ICC had over 30,000 subscribing members in 2005. It was the first Internet chess server and was the largest p ...

Bibliography

''(partial)'' *Speelman, Jonathan (1981). ''Analysing the Endgame''. Batsford (London, England). 142 pages. . *Speelman, Jonathan (1981). ''Endgame Preparation''. B.T. Batsford (London, England). 177 pages. . *Speelman, Jon (1982). ''Best Chess Games, 1970-80''. Allen & Unwin (London, England; Boston, Massachusetts). 328 pages. . *Speelman, Jonathan; Tisdall, Jon; Wade, Bob. (1993). ''Batsford Chess Endings''. B.T. Batsford (London, England). 448 pages. . *Speelman, Jon (1997). ''Jon Speelman's Best Games''. B.T. Batsford (London, England). 240 pages. .

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Speelman, Jon 1956 births Living people Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford Chess Grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors English chess players English chess writers English male non-fiction writers Mathematicians from London