IMAGE: Jan Timman was one of many best figures in Dutch and worldwide chess. {Photograph}: FIDE/X
Key Factors
- Dutch chess Grandmaster Jan Timman, often called “the very best of the West’, handed away on the age of 74.
- Timman was a World Championship contender and the strongest non-Soviet participant of his era.
- He gained his final Dutch nationwide championship in 1996.
Dutch chess Grandmaster Jan Timman, often called “the very best of the West” in a time when chess was dominated by gamers from the Soviet Union, has died on the age of 74, the Dutch Chess Federation mentioned on Thursday.
9-time Dutch champion Timman reached second place on the world rating in 1982, behind Soviet nice Anatoly Karpov, and gained a number of prestigious tournaments all through the Eighties.
He received a shot on the title of world champion in 1993 when he was invited to play the ultimate of the Candidates Match in opposition to Karpov, after defending world champion Garry Kasparov had damaged away from the World Chess Federation (FIDE).
Timman misplaced the ultimate by 12.5 to eight.5, and noticed his profession slowly fade after that. He gained his final Dutch nationwide championship in 1996, and later in his life revealed numerous books on chess together with one on the one Dutch world champion, Max Euwe.
In a 2023 interview, Timman mentioned he regretted by no means reaching the highest spot in chess, however admitted he had by no means wished to alter his bohemian way of life for it.
“I might not select chess as my career nowadays,” Timman informed Dutch newspaper NRC.
“They simply sit behind computer systems all day. It isn’t simply touring round and having a enjoyable life, like I did. It was a hippie life, however with a goal.”
