Jon Speelman


Jonathan Simon Speelman is an English Grandmaster chess player, mathematician, chess writer and Twitch streamer.

Early life and education

He was educated at Worcester College, Oxford, where he read Mathematics.

Career

A winner of the British Chess Championship in 1978, 1985 and 1986, Speelman has been a regular member of the English team for the Chess Olympiad, an international biennial chess tournament organised by FIDE, the World Chess Federation.
He qualified for two Candidates Tournaments:
Speelman's highest ranking in the FIDE Elo rating list was fourth in the world, in January 1989.
In 1989, he beat Kasparov in a televised speed tournament, and then went on to win the event.
In the April 2007 FIDE list, Speelman had an Elo rating of 2518, making him England's twelfth-highest-rated active player.

Writing

He has written a number of books on chess, including several on the endgame, among them Analysing the Endgame, Endgame Preparation and Batsford Chess Endings.
Among his other books are Best Games 1970-1980, an analysis of nearly fifty of the best games by top players from that decade, and Jon Speelman's Best Games. Today he is primarily a chess journalist and commentator, being the chess correspondent for The Observer and The Independent and sometimes providing commentary for games on the Internet Chess Club.