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Jonathan Simon Speelman (born 2 October 1956) is an English chess player, a Grandmaster, a mathematician, and a chess writer.

He was educated at Worcester College, Oxford. He studied mathematics at university, earning his Doctorate.

Winner of the British Chess Championship in 1978, 1985, and 1986, Speelman has been a regular member of the English Chess Olympiad team.

Speelman qualified for two Candidates' Tournaments. In the 1989-1990 cycle, he qualified by placing third in the 1987 Subotica Interzonal tournament. After beating Yasser Seirawan in his first round 4-1, and Nigel Short in the second round 3.5-1.5, he lost to Jan Timman at the semi-final stage 4.5-3.5. In the following championship cycle (1990-93) he lost in the first round to Short, the eventual challenger for Garry Kasparov's crown, 5.5-4.5.

Speelman's highest ranking in the FIDE Elo rating list was equal fourth in the world, in January 1989.

In 1989 Speelman beat Kasparov in a televised speed tournament, and then went on to win the event.

Speelman is noted for his imaginative style, often choosing unobvious ways to carry on his games.

In the April 2007 FIDE list Speelman had an Elo rating of 2518, making him England's 12th-highest rated active player.

He is also known as "Spess," short for "specimen," one of the many misspellings of his name in the press over the years.

Married to Lyndsey Thomas, they have a son, Lawrence, born in January 1994.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Jon Speelman", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0