Jan Timman
- November 5, 2025
Defeated in the 1993 FIDE World Championship Match
Highest FIDE Elo Rating: 2680
Ranking: highest world number two
Tournament Career: winner of 18 super-tournaments:
2x winner of Tata Steel Masters, Max Euwe Memorial
winner of Linares Chess Tournament 1988, Las Palmas 1981, Mar del Plata 1982
and several others…
Chess Olympiads: gold individual medal on the first board
What earned him this:
The unassuming star of the eighties, Jan Timman from the Netherlands, was the world number two behind Karpov even before Garry Kasparov fully emerged on the scene. He won many of the biggest tournaments a chess player could win at that time: Wijk aan Zee, Linares, Las Palmas, and many others.
He participated in the Candidates Matches several times with varying success. His moment came in the early nineties when he lost the final of the Candidates Tournament to Short, but Short and Kasparov played their match outside of FIDE. Thus, FIDE had to organize its own competing championship match. In this match, Karpov, as the last FIDE-recognized world champion before Kasparov, faced Timman, the loser of the Candidates final. Karpov won the match as expected. Timman never came close to the world title again.
Why he isn’t higher:
Timman was a great chess player who always ended up just short of the top. His record of tournament victories is exceptionally impressive, but his career in the world championship cycles does not quite match up to it.
Best Game:
Jan Timman vs Garry Kasparov
Hilversum 1985
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Miroslav Janeček graduated in English Philology at Palacký University Olomouc. Currently he works in Prague as a content editor for a large marketing company. His roots are in Opava - the historic and cultural centre of the Czech part of Silesia. That city is also the home of Slezan Opava, the chess club where Miroslav started to play chess, later went on to work as a youth coach and which he to this day proudly represents. As an aspiring chess publicist, he is the main author of articles on ChessDB.cz. In his free time, in addition to chess and writing, he also devotes himself to racket sports, history, and literature.