GM tv performances in the 90s and a documentary from the 80s

[James Plaskett]

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2066911

[James Plaskett]

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1103082

[James Plaskett]

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2281595

(Although Stockfish16 reveals we BOTH played like wallies! The game is riddled with errors!)

[James Plaskett]

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2281595
(And here too my 21 d4?! ... is criticised by Stockfish 16, which cites 21 b4! ... as far superior. The computer also preferred there 21 Qf2!)

[James Plaskett]

Enough now of queen sacs.
Let me conclude by quoting thread contributor L. Barden who, after the British of 1982, observed that Speelman clocked up no less than THREE separate queen sacrifices in that event!

[MJMcCready]

Well as we all know Speelman could be ruthless on his day. As Nigel Short used to say he was very good at flicking the switch. He even sacced the exchange in the Lennigrad Dutch against Kasparov once -and beat him!

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070444

[James Plaskett]

Many times in the late 1970s Bob Wade told me that Jon Speelman could be the strongest British player " EASILY!"
Check out his managing to draw Vs me two pawns down in a 4NCL League game, his draw with Timman in their first match game, his draw with Yusupov in the England USSR match of 1985, a draw he pulled off when resignably lost Vs Portisch https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1114159 ... but, most of all, nobody else in the world could have even dreamed of holding this against the greatest player of all time -
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070538

[Matt Mackenzie]

Well as we all know Speelman could be ruthless on his day. As Nigel Short used to say he was very good at flicking the switch. He even sacced the exchange in the Lennigrad Dutch against Kasparov once -and beat him!

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070444

Though that was his only ever win against Gazza, I believe. And like Mickey, he never quite managed to beat him in classical chess.

Indeed, has any British player apart from Short? (unless you count a young, and then very much NZ based, Chandler)

[MJMcCready]

Don't think so. Colin Mc Nab played him in 77 and had the slightly better game but it was a draw.

[Jonathan Rogers]

I'm also quite sure not. Frightening to think of the world class players who never beat Kasparov. Add Shirov, Gelfand and Salov to the list for starters, and, I think, Leko too.

[IM Jack Rudd]

I suppose a lot of that is that Kasparov was already a really strong player by the time he started playing international events in earnest; you don't get results such as Keith Arkell beating Magnus Carlsen when the latter was a 12-year-old rated 2127.

[Matt Mackenzie]

I'm also quite sure not. Frightening to think of the world class players who never beat Kasparov. Add Shirov, Gelfand and Salov to the list for starters, and, I think, Leko too.

Plus - how could we forget! - Judit Polgar.

Re her and Leko, I think GK actually never lost a classical game to a Hungarian player - which is if anything an even more incredible stat.

(it was, I think, the relatively unheralded mid-level GM Pinter who came closest to doing it)

[Brian Valentine]

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1254283

[Matt Mackenzie]

Not a classical game?

(and chessgames.com itself agrees, giving said score as +5 =2 -0 to the beast of Baku)

[MJMcCready]

I'm also quite sure not. Frightening to think of the world class players who never beat Kasparov. Add Shirov, Gelfand and Salov to the list for starters, and, I think, Leko too.

The level of surety is correlated to how many British players have actually played Kasparov at classical chess and I don't think its very many. Added to Adams, Short and Speelman, we have Nunn in 82 who didn't make it out of the middle game. There is Chandler as you mentioned and the only other I can find is Simon Webb, the game appears in his famous book as you may remember. Miles obviously played him in a match in 86 but didn't do very well at all and lost almost all the games.