Short is tall
Final Top Standings
1. GM Nigel Short ENG 2698, 8.0/9 2-3. GM Karen Grigoryan ARM 2586, GM Nguyen Duc Hoa VIE 2499, 7.0/9
4-8. GM Narayanan Srinath IND 2511, GM Rogelio Antonio, Jr. PHI 2365, IM Tran Minh Thang VIE 2352, IM Kim Steven Yap PHI 2361, IM Oliver Dimakiling PHI 2419, 6.0/9
9-15. Edsel Montoya PHI 2262, IM Ronald Dableo PHI 2419, Jayson Salubre PHI 2282, GM Tran Tuan Minh VIE 2558, Ted Ian Montoyo PHI 2297, GM Darwin Laylo PHI 2402, Xavier John Verdun PHI 2147, 5.5/9 Total of 51 participants Time Control: 90 minutes play-to-finish with 30 seconds added to your time after every move starting from the first move.
I quit chess after high school graduation. There was no choice — my dad had died several years earlier and I took a job to pay for my college education in the University of Santo Tomas (UST). That sentence might seem a bit ambiguous to our readers: was it a college education I got in UST or a job? The answer is: both. UST had a working student program (all the big colleges and universities should have one!) which I entered and it changed my life.
After graduation it was time to earn a living so there was even less time for chess. Anyway, in 1992 the Chess Olympiad was held in Manila, at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC). This was an event I was not going to miss, so I went over to the PICC to watch the chess action, and it was amazing.
I remember it was the second round — Kasparov was not yet playing but that was not a big issue for in the tournament hall there were so many people who I only used to read about in the magazines, and they were here right in front of me!
I saw IM Vernon Small of New Zealand was chuckling to myself that Small was rather a large guy when I almost ran into a tall dude who was rushing back to his board — it was Nigel Short! Nigel at that time was 27 years old and nearing the peak of his career — in the next year (1993) he would play for the world chess championship. My first impression on seeing him was not chess-related at all – He was easily 6’ 2” and I was thinking that BOY, who would have guessed? Small is large and Short is tall.
I was really hooked on chess again and immediately wrote a very long article on the Chess Olympiad entitled “Small is Large and Short is Tall.” I toiled on it night and day for a month or so, then the notebook computer I had (remember this was 1992 and notebooks were not as common as now) conked out and everything was wiped out (pause to emphasize the pain).
GM Nigel and the Philippines have a nice connection.
Short’s path to the World Chess Championship title began in 1985 when he narrowly qualified from the 1985 Biel Interzonal to become Britain’s first-ever candidate. This intersected directly with GM Eugene Torre’s career, for El Eugenio had qualified for the Candidates’ in the previous cycle (Toluca 1982) and was also playing in 1985 Biel to qualify for the second time. Nigel Short came from behind and caught up with John van der Wiel (Netherlands) and Torre in the last round. The three of them had to stay behind to engage in a playoff, and millions of Filipino hearts were broken when Nigel Short beat his two adversaries to proceed to the next stage. in Manila. It was a hard fight — Eugene won the first game Torre, Eugene O. (2555) — Short, Nigel D. (2665) [C24] Carlsberg Chess Match (1),
17.10.1988 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 c6 4.Nf3 d6 5.0–0 Be7 6.Bb3 0–0 7.c3 Nbd7 8.Re1 Qc7 9.d4 a6 10.a4 b6 11.Nbd2 g6 12. Nf1 Kg7 13. Ng3 c5 14. dxe5 Nxe5 15. Nxe5 dxe5 16. Qe2 Be6 17. Bxe6 fxe6 18. c4 Rab8 19. b3 h5 20. h3 Nh7 21. Nf1 Bg5 22. Bb2 Rf7 23.Red1
After the game Torre gave the line 23.Nh2! Rbf8 24.Rf1 as better.
23...Rbf8 24.f3 Nf6 25.Rd3 Rd7 26.Rad1 Rfd8 27.Bc3 h4 28.Rxd7+ Rxd7 29. Rxd7+ Nxd7 30. Bd2 Bf4 31. Be1 g5 32. Qd3 Nf6 33. Bc3 Kf7 34.Ne3 Ke7 35.Ng4 Nxg4 36.fxg4 Qa7 37.Kf1 Qd7?
[37...Qc7 is correct]
38.Qxd7+ Kxd7
Isn’t this a draw? Looks like White cannot make progress. Actually, upon deeper study White CAN make progress. Watch.
39.Ke2 a5 40.Kf3 Ke7 41.Be1 Kf6 42.g3 hxg3 43.Bxg3 Kg7 44.h4 Kg6 45.Kg2 Kg7 46.hxg5 Kg6 47.Bxf4 exf4 48.e5! Kxg5 49.Kf3 Kh6 50.Kxf4 Kg6 51.Kf3 Kh6 52.Kg2 Kg5 53.Kg3 Kh6 54.Kh4 Kg6 55.g5 Kg7 56.Kh5 Kh7 57.g6+ Kg8 58.Kh6 Kh8 59.g7+ Kg8 60.Kg6 1–0
The finish will be 60.Kg6 b5 61.cxb5 c4 62.b6 cxb3 63.b7 b2 64.b8Q#
But then Short came back to win the 4th game. All the other games were drawn. There was no revenge as the match ended in a 3-3 tie. By the way, this match has not yet found its way to the major databases. I copied the gamescores directly from newspaper clippings then.
Short’s next attempt at the world championship was the 1990 Manila Interzonal. Once again he came from behind, defeated long-time tournament leader Mikhail Gurevich in the last round to finish among the qualifiers together with Boris Gelfand, Vassily Ivanchuk, Vishy Anand, Alexey Dreev, Viktor Korchnoi, Sergey Dolmatov, Predrag Nikolic, Robert Huebner, Gyula Sax and Leonid Yudasin.
GM Nigel played one of the best games of the tournament, defeating ( guess who) Eugene Torre in a great demolition of the Filipino’s Sicilian Defense. Short, Nigel D. (2610) — Torre, Eugenio (2530) [B67] Manila Interzonal (5), 1990 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.0–0–0 Bd7 9.f4 b5 10.Bxf6 gxf6 11. Nxc6 Bxc6 12. Qe1 Be7 13. Bd3 Qb6 14.Kb1 All of this is theory, but you must remember the two players here wrote a lot of that.
14...h5
The other moves for Black are 14...b4 or 14...a5, but now it is recognized that Torre is right — Black has to prevent White’s kingside offensive with 14...h5.
15.f5 Qc5 16.Rf1
Threat is 17. e5 dxe5 18. fxe6 fxe6 19.Ne4.
16...Kd7
GM Uwe Boensch wrote that 16...b4 17.Ne2 e5 is better 17.Rf3 Rag8 18.fxe6+ fxe6
POSITION AFTER 18...FXE6 19.Nd5! Rxg2
The knight cannot be taken: 19...exd5 20.b4 Qb6 21.exd5 with Bf5+ to follow;
19... Bxd5 20. exd5 e5 21. Bf5+ Ke8 22.Rc3 with a decisive penetration.
20.b4! Qa7 21.Nxe7 Kxe7 22.Qc3 Kd7 23.Rxf6 Rh7 24.e5 Rg1 25.Rxg1 Qxg1+ 26.Rf1 Qg2 27.Qd4 Kc7 28.Rg1 1–0
The 1990 Manila Interzonal was to be the springboard of his most successful campaign. In the 1991 Brussels Candidates’ Matches Short defeated Gelfand 4 games to 2 with 2 draws. In the quarterfinals he squeezed through countryman Jonathan Speelman (+2-2=4) and then 1.5-0.5 in the rapid tiebreaks and then, in 1992, came the big shocker, he beat Anatoly Karpov +4-2=4 in their semifinals match in Linares 1992. You should understand that although Karpov was no longer world champion at that time he was considered a close second to Garry Kasparov. In fact, 2 years later Karpov was to score the best tournament result in his life with an 11/13 performance in 1994 Linares, equivalent to a tournament performance rating of 2985. Statistician Jeff Sonas considers Karpov’s Linares performance to be the best tournament result in history.
Anyway, in the final in 1993 San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Short defeated Dutchman Jan Timman 5 wins against 3 losses with 5 draws to earn the right to challenge for the title against defending World Champion Garry Kasparov.
These were tumultuous times in the chess world as Nigel Short and Garry Kasparov quarreled with Hon. Florencio Campomanes and the World Chess Federation ( FIDE) and ultimately split off the form the rival Professional Chess Association (PCA). We won’t discuss the politics here, only the chess. The Times newspaper of London sponsored the world championship match in London 1993 which Kasparov won convincingly 6 wins to 1 with 13 draws.
This was Short’s last fling at the world title. Not to say that his chess declined as from 1993 up to now he has scored a lot of tournament and match victories (too numerous to list down here) and is a perennial member of the English national team to the Olympiads, European and World Team Championships.
He is known as a good coach, his most famous students being Sergey Karjakin (Russia) and the Indians Penteala Harikrishna and Parimarjan Negi.
Another thing that he did very well was chess commentator. The famous chess author/ historian Edward Winter has named him among the top 5 Internet broadcasters and I wholeheartedly agree. Of particular interest to gossips like me is that Short knows everybody in the chess world and has lots of background and/or inside information on them. He speaks what is on his mind and oftentimes is involved in controversies — which makes it all even more interesting!
Even now, at the age of 52, Nigel Short is rated 2698 just 2 points below 2700 and the oldest among FIDE’s top 100 players.
This is the giant of a player who came to Philippine shores to play in the 2017 Negros Open Chess Championship. He won it of course. We will continue our story on Tuesday.