MARK RUBERY CHESS
Perhaps the most mysterious case of early retirement from the game surrounds Valery Salov. He was one of the elite players in the world during the 80’s and 90s (reaching number 3 behind Kasparov and Karpov) but has not played a rated game since January 2000.
In 1992 when Nigel Short was at the peak of his powers (he was a year away from challenging for the world championship) his much-vaunted positional judgement deserted him in the following game against Salov played at the Linares tournament of that year.
Salov,Valery (2655) - Short,Nigel D (2685) [D36]
Linares (10), 1992
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 (Short, more than any player of his generation, has been attached to the Queens Gambit Declined) 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 Be7 6.e3 0–0 7.Bd3 Nbd7 8.Nge2 Re8 9.Qc2 Nf8 10.a3 c6 11.0–0 Ng4 12.Bxe7 Qxe7 13.h3 Nh6 14.Ng3 Ng6 15.Rae1 Qh4 16.Nf5 Nxf5 17.Bxf5 Bxf5 18.Qxf5 Rad8 19.g3 Qh6 20.h4 Ne7 21.Qg5 Qe6 22.e4 h6 23.Qh5 dxe4 24.Rxe4 Qd7 25.Rfe1 (After fairly typical play from the opening Short sees a way to bypass the middlegame completely; although as we shall soon see this release of the tension in the position was fatally flawed)…Nd5? (Heading by force to an ultimately lost king and pawn ending. Instead 25…Nc8 is equal) 26.Rxe8+ Rxe8 27.Rxe8+ Qxe8 28.Nxd5 Qe1+ 29.Kg2 Qe4+ 30.Qf3 Qxd5 31.Qxd5 cxd5 32.Kf3 f6 33.h5! (Salov sets about converting the ending with consummate ease)…Kf7 34.Kf4 Ke6 35.g4 a6 36.a4 a5 37.b3 b6 38.f3! (It would have been around this time that Short would have been regretting his decision on move 25 as this extra tempo decisively influences the result)…Ke7 39.Kf5 Kf7 40.f4 g6+ (Desperation but 40…Ke7 41 Kg6 Kf8 42 g5! hxg5 43 hxg5 fxg5 44 Kxg5 Kf7 45 Kf5 decides) 41.hxg6+ Kg7 42.Ke6 Kxg6 43.f5+ Kg5 44.Kf7 Kxg4 45.Kxf6 h5 46.Ke5 1–0 (Since after both players promote White can effect an exchange of queens winning easily)
I remember being Alexi Shirov’s second during the Dos Hermanas 1997 tournament. One day Salov had defeated Topalov in a long game where Valery simply ground down Topalov with fine technique. (Salov had Fischer-type patience, super technique and was the fittest chessplayer on the circuit) For the next few hours, Danailov (Topalov’s second) could be seen using the telephone in the Hotel lobby, calling as many organizers as he could, complaining about how boring and lifeless Salov’s style of play was! About how such a dry style kills chess as a spectator sport…(GM Kevin Spraggett)