Jan Timman: the best player in the West

In an era when the USSR dominated chess overwhelmingly, Jan Timman was the Western exception: the best player outside the Soviet bloc for more than a decade, an elegant attacker who proved you didn’t need to be born in Moscow to compete with the best.

Who Timman is

He was born on December 14, 1951 in Amsterdam. The Netherlands had a chess tradition — Max Euwe had been world champion in 1935 — but in the 1980s chess was dominated by the USSR. Timman became the world’s number 2, the best outside the Soviet bloc, and was nicknamed “the Best of the West.”

At the doors of the title

Timman reached the final stages of the Candidates cycle several times. His closest moment to the title came in 1993, when he reached the Candidates final, where he was defeated by Nigel Short. It was painful, but his run showed that a Western player could compete on equal terms with the Soviet elite.

Attacker and author

Timman’s style was attacking and elegant: he sought complicated positions where his tactical vision could shine. Besides being a player, Timman is a prolific author of chess books, recognized for their analytical quality.

His chess DNA

In our chess DNA system, Timman represents the profile of the Western attacker: high aggressiveness and tactics, with a consistency that sometimes gave way under the pressure of the long world cycles. If your GM twin is Timman, your strength is elegant attack and combinative vision.

Keep exploring

• Max Euwe, the other great Dutchman of chess
• Nigel Short, his rival in the Candidates final
• Jorden van Foreest, the new Dutch star
• All players