GM Jan Timman RIP

[Hans Jung]

https://en.chessbase.com/post/speelman-agony-237 Imagine a bottle of wine with a label that has a diagram showing your best surprise move.

[Hans Jung]

I have wanted to write about Timman's influence on generations of players. First of all the awareness he brought to me and many other players of the joy of both composing and solving complex endgame studies. I recently saw a picture that I remember in the past. It was Jan Timman sitting across from Yochanan Afek in a pub somewhere in Holland. In front of them was a position from an endgame. Timman's face was very expressive and he seemed to be making a point probably in the midst of analysis. Watching in rapt attention were Manuel Bosboom and Sosonko amongst many grnadmasters and IM's.
I will probably introduce later some of Timman's most famous endgame studies but I want to start with a simple position (how could anything be simpler in chess?) Its a five piece composition, a total of three pawns, two white pawns and one black pawn and two kings.

White to move and win. Simple, right? Its a composition by Harold van der Heijden who founded the famous endgame database. You can solve this by brute calculation or by logic and creative vision.

[Hans Jung]

The solution to the above problem in post 32 is 1.Kh1! and then two main move choices for Black. If 1...Kf3 2.e5 fxe5 3.g5, e4 4.Kg1, e3 5.Kf1 and stops the E-pawn.

If 1....Kf1 2.e5 fxe5 3.g5, e4 4.g6, e3 5.g7 e2 6.g8=Q, e1=Q 7.Qg2 mate.

[Kerry Liles]

The solution to the above problem in post 32 is 1.Kh1! and then two main move choices for Black. If 1...Kf3 2.e5 fxe5 3.g5, e4 4.Kg1, e3 5.Kf1 and stops the E-pawn.

If 1....Kf1 2.e5 fxe5 3.g5, e4 4.g6, e3 5.g7 e2 6.g8=Q, e1=Q 7.Qg2 mate.

Excellent study... very tricky. Thanks for posting.

[Hans Jung]

In Timman's last column titled "Give pieces a chance" in New in Chess #8, 2025 he says : "Attacks may flourish brilliantly or flounder tragically, but dynamic and tactically rich chess is always fascinating to watch"

The first two games he chooses are Theodorou - Predke, European Teams 2025 and Boyer - Jobava also European Teams 2025. They are chaotic and tactically brilliant. Timman's analysis is crisp and to the point and enhances the games.

[Hans Jung]

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2973365 Theodorou - Predke, 2025 European Teams Batumi

[Hans Jung]

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2976321 Boyer - Jobava, 2025 European Teams Championship, Batumi

[Hans Jung]

Excellent study... very tricky. Thanks for posting.

You are welcome Kerry. Glad you are enjoying. I hope to add more.

[Hans Jung]

Timman's famous book - The Art of Chess Analysis. I benefited from it twice - the first time in my formative years as a young chess master and then 16 years later as an unexpected gift after a terrible tragedy.

Todd Southam won the Art of Chess Analysis as a best game prize (I think?) at the World Cadet Championship in France in 1984. It was one of his favorite books.

Years later he met my student, young Isaac Mathews, in London, Ontario. They became inseparable. For two all too short years Todd was the older brother that Isaac never had. Todd had a renaissance in playing and analysing at the time and, of course the whole London chess community benefited hugely.

In December, 1996 Todd was taken from us suddenly. His death was a shock to everyone. That was thirty years ago. Isaac was grief stricken and gave up chess at that point, on the verge of master strength. He was 14. I was given his chess books, the one I treasure most is, you guessed it: "The Art of Chess Analysis."

Even thirty years later, Todd you are not forgotten.

[Hans Jung]

There are two games in "The Art of Chess Analysis" that have intense meaning for me. The first is: Ljubojevic - Andersson, Hoogoven Tournament, Wijk aan Zee, 1976. Timman's final note on the game is: "On behalf of Raymond Keene, Ken Rogoff, and Gudmundur Sigurjonsson, who, when I showed them this game, followed it as avidly as I did when I first played it through, I want to convey the feeling that overcame us there in the Spanish town of Orense: that this was the best game of the last twenty years."

Super high praise indeed and at the time I believed it firmly. Now, I don't know. Think of all the games it is ahead of - all of the Fischer games, Tal, Smyslov etc. Is it possible?

[Hans Jung]

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1019762 Ljubojevic - Andersson, 1976

[Hans Jung]

The second game that had intense meaning for me was game fifteen in the book, Geller-Spassky, Alekhine Memorial Tournament, Moscow 1975. I remember intense discussions with Todd and Isaac over this game. First of all it was one of the most famous games involving the King's Indian Attack. Both Todd and me had a background in the King's Indian Attack and for me it was an opening of choice for many years. Then there was the attraction that it was between Geller, the godfather of Sicilian Opening theory, and Spassky himself.

Isaac was learning the ropes at that time and he for sure was an enthusiastic student. The questions he posed Todd and me and they were answered to the best of our ability to the Nth degree - and then there was Timman's delicious words and analysis - eight sublime pages. and then there was Spassky's final blunder after a rare Geller big mistake - such drama.

[Hans Jung]

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1049779 Geller - Spassky, Alekhine Menorial, 1975