Nigel Short

Nigel D. Short, 2013 in Warsaw
Surname	Nigel David Short
Association	England
Born	June 1, 1965 Leigh
title	International Master (1980) Grand Master (1984)
Current  Elo rating	2626 (August 2020)
Best Elo rating	2712 (April 2004)
Tab at the FIDE (English)

Nigel David Short , MBE (born June 1, 1965 in Leigh ) is an English chess grandmaster and one of the Vice-Presidents of FIDE since October 2018 .

Life

Nigel Short took part in the British adult championship at the age of twelve and defeated national champion Jonathan Penrose in this tournament . At fifteen he was runner-up in the junior world championship behind Garry Kasparov . Short became a national player and won the Baku tournament in 1983 . In 1984 he received the grandmaster title. In 1985 he came to the Candidates Tournament of Montpellier before and finished there, the shared 10th place.

1986 in Krefeld he was second behind John Nunn in the First Open German Individual Championship . 1986 and 1987 he won in Wijk aan Zee . In 1988 he won the Euwe Memorial in front of Kasparov in Amsterdam. In the second round of the candidate fights in London in 1988, he lost to his compatriot Jonathan Speelman . In 1992 he defeated Anatoly Karpov in the Candidates Tournament after defeating Jonathan Speelman and Boris Gelfand . In 1993 he triumphed over Jan Timman in the candidate finals and was given the right to compete against Kasparov for the world chess championship .

Since both did not want to play the world championship fight under the conditions of FIDE, FIDE disqualified both players and set a "replacement" world championship . Short and Kasparow then founded the Professional Chess Association (PCA) in 1993 , an organization that disbanded after hosting the 1994/1995 World Cup. The PCA was a competitor to FIDE and held its own world championships. Kasparov became PCA world champion in 1993 with a 12.5: 7.5 against Short.

In 2004 Short won the Commonwealth Championship , in September 2006 the European Union Championship in Liverpool and in November 2006 in Mumbai again the Commonwealth Championship. He wrote regular chess columns in English daily newspapers (September 2005 to October 2006 in The Guardian , previously in the Daily Telegraph ).

In July 2007, a complaint filed against him by Zurab Asmaiparashvili was heard before the FIDE Ethics Committee . Short had criticized Asmaiparashvili for his role as a member of the court of arbitration in the World Cup match between Kramnik and Topalov . The commission ruled that Short's remarks were largely covered by the right to freedom of expression, but reprimanded him for using the word “dunderhead”.

In 2008 Short again won the Commonwealth Championship in Nagpur . In June 2009 he won the Sigeman tournament in Malmö , in August he achieved the best result at the Staunton Memorial in London with 8 points from 10 games . In September he won a match against Sachar Jefymenko in Mukachevo with 3.5: 2.5 (+2 = 3 −1).

He won the championship of Great Britain in 1984, 1987 and 1998.

Shorts current Elo rating is 2671, which puts him in 72nd place in the Fide world rankings and is the third best English player (as of March 2016) .

In October 2018 he was elected one of FIDE's vice-presidents after announcing his presidential candidacy in May 2018.

He is married to a Greek woman and has two children: a daughter (* 1991) and a son (* 1998).

Team chess

National team

Jonathan Speelman , Nigel Short, John Nunn and Tony Miles , 1986 Chess Olympiad

Jonathan Speelman , John Nunn , Murray Chandler , Jonathan Mestel , William Watson and Nigel Short won the silver medal at the 1988 Chess Olympiad in Thessaloniki .

Since 1984 he has participated in 16 Chess Olympiads with the English team and scored 99 points from 163 games. With the team he reached second place in 1984 , 1986 and 1988 , and in 1986 he also achieved the best individual result on the third board (10 points from 13 games). Between 1983 and 2013 Short took part in seven team European championships, in 1997 he won the competition with the English team in Pula . 1985, 1989 and 1997 Short took part with the English team in the World Team Championship , he reached third place in 1985 and 1989 respectively.

Club chess

Nigel Short played in the British Four Nations Chess League (4NCL) from 1999 to 2003 for Wood Green , and since 2011 he has played for Guildford A&DC . He won the 4NCL in 2003 , 2013 , 2014 , 2015 and 2016 . In the German federal chess league, Short played in the 1983/84 season at SG Enger / Spenge , from 1985 to 1988 and from 1990 to 1992 at Schachgesellschaft Solingen , with which he became German team champion in 1987 and 1988 , and in the 1998/99 season at SV Castrop-Rauxel . Short played in the French Top 16 in the 2003/04 season at CMEC Monaco , and he won the Dutch Meester class in 2013 with En Passant Bunschoten-Spakenburg . Short won the Bosnian Premijer Liga in 2004 with ŠK Bosna Sarajevo , with which he was runner-up three years later. In the Spanish team championship , Short played for CA Tiendas UPI Mancha Real in 2003 and for Sestao XT in 2010 .

Game example

In one of the most sensational games in the history of chess Short forced the victory against Jan Timman in a very unusual way : Nigel Short led the white pieces, the Dutch Timman had black. The game was played in 1991 at the traditional tournament in Tilburg, the Netherlands . The tournament was won by the then world champion Garri Kasparow 1.5 points ahead of Short, who was only second (8.5 out of 14).

1. e2 – e4 Ng8 – f6

Timman defends himself with the Alekhine Defense , which at the highest level does not have a very good reputation and does not occur frequently.

2. e4 – e5 Nf6 – d5 3. d2 – d4 d7 – d6 4. Ng1 – f3 g7 – g6 5. Bf1 – c4 Nd5 – b6 6. Bc4 – b3 Bf8 – g7 7. Qd1 – e2

Other moves played here are 7. a2 – a4 and 7. Nf3 – g5.

7.… Nb8 – c6 8. 0–0 0–0 9. h2 – h3 a7 – a5 10. a2 – a4 d6xe5 11. d4xe5 Nc6 – d4 12. Nf3xd4 Qd8xd4 13. Rf1 – e1 e7 – e6 14. Nb1– d2 Nb6 – d5

This train was previously unknown. In Short's own practice, he had previously met the move 14.… Bc8 – d7 (Short-Hennigan, Championship of Great Britain 1987).

15. Nd2 – f3 Qd4 – c5 16. Qe2 – e4! Qc5 – b4! 17. Bb3 – c4 Nd5 – b6 18. b2 – b3! Nb6xc4 19.b3xc4

According to Short, White has an advantage in this position.

19.… Rf8 – e8 20. Re1 – d1 Qb4 – c5 21. De4 – h4 b7 – b6 22. Bc1 – e3! Qc5-c6

Probably 22.… Qc5 – f8 was better.

23. Be3 – h6 Bg7 – h8 24. Rd1 – d8 Bc8 – b7 25. Ra1 – d1 Lh8 – g7 26. Rd8 – d7!

Instead 26. Bh6xg7 ?, because of Ra8xd8

26.… Re8 – f8

White threatened various answers with 27. Rxf7!

27. Bh6xg7 Kg8xg7 28. Rd1 – d4

An interesting option here was instead 28. c4 – c5 !? b6xc5 29. Qh4 – c4 Qc6 – e4 30. Qc4xc5 Qe4xa4 31. Nf3 – g5! Bb7 – d5! 32. Qc5 – e7! Kg7 – g8 33. Rd7xc7 with attack.

28.… Ra8 – e8 29. Qh4 – f6 + Kg7 – g8 30. h3 – h4 h7 – h5 31. Kg1 – h2

The Scottish grandmaster Jonathan Rowson , who consulted Short on the game, writes about this move that Short actually felt in bad shape and "played the parry unusually slowly until then". "Here he just made a useful move because he only had two minutes left before the time control on move 40."

31.… Re8 – c8?

The crucial mistake. 31.… Bb7 – c8 was the only move Black could play, but after 32. g2 – g4! h5xg4 33. Nf3 – g5 g4 – g3 +! 34. f2xg3 Bc8 – b7 35. Ng5 – e4 (35. Qf6 – f1 also wins) 35.… Qc6xa4 36. h4 – h5 Q4xc2 + 37. Ne4 – f2 g6xh5 38. Rd4 – d3 Bb7 – e4 39. Rd3 – d2 Qc2 –B1 40. Rd2 – d1 Qb1 – c2 41. Rd7 – d2 Qc2xc4 42. Rd2 – d4 White is also on the win (variant of Short given). It would also be possible (after 31.… Bb7 – c8) 32. Rd7 – e7! Re8xe7 33. Qf6xe7 Bc8 – b7 34. Kh2 – g3 Qc6 – c5 35. Qe7xc5! b6xc5 36. Rd1 – d7 with a clear advantage, for example 36.… Bb7xf3 ?! 37. Kg3xf3 Rf8 – c8 38. Kf3 – f4 Kg8 – f8 39. f2 – f3! (but not 39. Kf4 – g5? Kf8 – e8 with compensation) 39.… Kf8 – e8 40. Rd7 – d3 Rd8 – b8 41. Rd3 – b3! Rb8 – b4 42. Rb3xb4 c5xb4 43. Kf4 – g5 Ke8 – e7 44. g2 – g4 h5xg4 45. f3xg4 with an easy win.

Short – Timman

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Position after Black's 31st move

32. Kh2 – g3 !!

The introduction to the uncoverable Matt ! "Now I started to really enjoy the game." (Short)

32.… Rc8 – e8 33. Kg3 – f4!

Black can only watch.

33.… Bb7 – c8 34. Kf4 – g5!

Timman gave up here. 34.… Bc8xd7 follows 35. Kg5 – h6 and White mates on the next move with Qf6 – g7. If Black plays 34 ... Kg8 – h7, White takes the (then unprotected) pawn g6 (f7 is tied ) with 35. Qf6xg6 + and mates a few moves later. A king's march on a “full” board, as it has not been seen before. The winning path discovered by Short is more like a study than a real tournament game. The game won the special prize of the chess informator as the best game of the chess informator 53 (this is also the source for the comments used).

literature

• Cathy Forbes: Nigel Short, quest for the crown . Cadogan, London 1993, ISBN 1-85744-048-X .
• Raymond Keene : Nigel Short. World Chess Challenger. Batsford, London 1992, 1993, ISBN 0-7134-7281-2 .
• Stefan Löffler : Challengers. That's how Nigel Short plays . Sportverlag Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-328-00586-2 .
• David Short: Nigel Short, chess prodigy . Faber & Faber, London 1981. (A biography written by his father)
• Nigel Short: Nigel Short's chess skills . Hamlyn, London 1989. ISBN 060055743X . (Chess textbook based on own games)

Web links

Commons : Nigel Short  - Collection of Images

• Nigel Short at the World Chess Federation FIDE (English)
• Literature by and about Nigel Short in the catalog of the German National Library
• Lot with twelve years against Penrose (English)
• Replayable chess games by Nigel Short on chessgames.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dagobert Kohlmeyer : What, already 50? In: de.chessbase.com. June 1, 2015, accessed October 25, 2019.
2. ^ Open German individual championship 1986 in Krefeld on TeleSchach ( Ingo evaluation , games)
3. ↑ Jan C. Roosendaal: Shorts most beautiful victory . Schach-Echo 1988, issue 4, pages 127 to 129 (report, table, games).
4. ↑ Ian Rogers : Speelman storms into the semifinals . Schach-Echo 1988, issue 9, pages 335 to 337 (report, individual results, games).
5. ↑ Decision of the Ethics Committee (PDF, English; 87 kB)
6. ↑ Chessbase.com
7. ^ Olimpbase.org
8. ↑ Nigel Shorts results at European Team Championships on olimpbase.org (English)
9. ↑ Nigel Shorts results at team world championships on olimpbase.org (English)
10. ↑ Nigel Shorts results in the Premijer Liga on olimpbase.org (English)
11. ↑ Nigel Shorts results in Spanish team championships on olimpbase.org (English)
12. ↑ Notation on chessgames.com
13. ↑ Jonathan Rowson: The Seven Deadly Sins of the Chess Player , Gambit Publications, London 2003, p. 59
14. ↑ Jonathan Rowson: The Seven Deadly Sins of the Chess Player , Gambit Publications, London 2003, p. 60