NIC Podcast #76 - GM Jon Speelman

September 19, 2025
Categories: Podcast
Author: Alex Polak

This week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast features an interview with British grandmaster Jonathan Speelman.

Jon, as he's commonly referred to, is a three-time British Champion and a two-time Candidate for the World Championship. In the Candidates, he won matches against Nigel Short and Yasser Seirawan. He has also been successful with the English national team, as they twice finished second in the Olympiad, in Dubai in 1986 and in Thessaloniki in 1988, while finishing third in Novi Sad in 1990. At the peak of his career, Jon was a world top 10 player, his highest spot being number 5 in 1988. In 1987, he beat Garry Kasparov in a televised rapid game and then went on to win the event.

Jon has also authored several acclaimed books, and over the years has written literally hundreds and hundreds of chess columns. He was the chess columnist for The Independent and still is the chess columnist for the Observer. He also has a regular column on ChessBase. Besides writing about chess, Jon enjoys teaching students of all levels.

Interviewed by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, Jon Speelman takes a closer look at the main protagonists in the FIDE Grand Swiss and comments on their performances. In the process, he shares many memories from his own career at the highest level.

Enjoy this week's episode of the New In Chess Podcast!

0:00 – Intro

5:25 – Anish’s unbeaten performance at the FIDE Grand Swiss

6:35 – Keymer’s performance and final game against Bluebaum

8:56 – Bluebaum’s strength in open tournaments

9:40 – Jon’s own experience playing long tournaments

12:00 – Mishra’s performance and his future in chess

17:48 – Gukesh’s current reign as World Champion

20:38 – Jon’s expectations going into the Grand Swiss event

22:35 – The strong performances of Anish Giri and Matthias Bluebaum

24:47 – AD BREAK

25:26 – How does Jon feel about the way qualifications for the Candidates tournament are set up?

27:50 – Andy Woodward’s performance and his prowess at solving chess puzzles

32:25 – Did Jon practice tactics a lot during his playing career?

33:55 – Jon’s work as a trainer

36:30 – How did Jon go about writing chess books in the pre-engine era?

44:30 – Drunken Tal stories

48:37 – AD BREAK

49:47 – Previewing the Candidates Tournament

51:50 – Hikaru’s unorthodox approach to reaching the Candidates

58:06 – Jon’s wish list for the Candidates Tournament

59:41 – Hans Niemann’s performance

1:03:18 – How does Jon feel about freestyle?

1:09:00 – Music

1:11:54 - Outro 

2 Comments
Larry Smith on Sep 21, 2025 02:40
Thanks so much for this! Speelman's insights into the current crop of GMs was enlightening.

I was surprised yet pleased to hear the discussion at the very end about the late Tom Lehrer. As his "Elements" song was mentioned, here is a link to what I called the "Chess Elements" song. See if you recognize the tune!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu9pWvQhf28
Reyk Schaefer on Sep 19, 2025 20:11
I'm a big fan of Jon's writing and also of his games, but this episode is a bit disappointing. I guess you want to be either well prepared for the podcast or have followed the tournament closely. Preferably both.
But you both messed up several things and to look it up for ages during the podcast didn't make it any better.
1) You've got the Giri/Niemann/Keymer tiebreak wrong - they all had the same average of opps (rounded down)
2) Repeating the myth, that Bluebaum was safe with a draw (except Mishra wins). I mean we had it on the board even: Bluebaum had drawn, Giri had won, Keymer had excellent winning chances. Bluebaum realised this, but it was of course way too late to change the course of his game.
3) There were a lot of unbeaten players like Abdusattorov, Shirov, Dubov. Ponomariov even drew all his games. There might be more. But does it matter the slightest?
4) Jon really wasn't aware of what happened between Keymer and Bluebaum? This was the central game of penultimate round and one of the biggest dramas of the tournament ...
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