Jan Timman

The best Dutch player since Euwe and one of the most creative attacking minds of his generation. His path to the 1993 championship was unusual, but his place among the great challengers is deserved.

The Unusual Path

Jan Timman was born on December 14, 1951, in Amsterdam. He was the strongest Dutch player since Max Euwe and one of the most consistently elite players of the 1980s and 1990s. He reached the Candidates final three times but lost each time: to Karpov in 1982, to Short in 1993, and once more in between.

His 1993 World Championship match came about through chess politics. After Short won the Candidates final against Timman, both Short and Kasparov broke away from FIDE to play their match under the PCA. FIDE responded by stripping Kasparov of the title and organizing its own championship match between Timman and Karpov. Timman lost 12.5-8.5, but the match gave him a place in the record books as a World Championship challenger, a distinction his decades of elite play had earned.