Nigel Short

Nigel Short
Full name	Nigel David Short
Country	England
Born	1 June 1965 (1965-06-01) (age 46) Leigh, England
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2698 (No. 49 in the September 2011 FIDE World Rankings)
Peak rating	2712 (April 2004)

Nigel David Short MBE (born 1 June 1965 in Leigh, Lancashire) is an English chess grandmaster earning the title at the age of 19. Short is often regarded as the strongest English player of the 20th century as he was ranked third in the world, from January 1988 – July 1989 and in 1993, he challenged Garry Kasparov for the World Chess Championship, in London. Currently the oldest player in the world top 50, Short is also a chess columnist, coach and commentator.

Early life

He grew up in Atherton, going to the St Philip's primary school on Bolton Old Road. He studied at the independent Bolton School and Leigh College. He was a member both of Atherton Chess Club, which was founded by his father, David, and later of Bolton Chess Club,^[1] which had initially rejected him, aged seven, for being too young.

Prodigy to Grandmaster

A chess prodigy, Short first attracted significant media attention, as a 10-year-old, by defeating Viktor Korchnoi in a simultaneous exhibition. In 1977 he became the youngest ever participant in the British Chess Championship by qualifying three days before his twelfth birthday. Two years later, at the British Championship in Chester 1979, the 14-year-old tied for first place with John Nunn and Robert Bellin, earning his first IM norm. He became (at the time) the youngest International Master in chess history, by scoring 8/15 in the Hastings Premier in 1979/80 and thus breaking Bobby Fischer's record of 1958.^[2] Participating in four World Junior Championships (1980–1983), Short achieved his best result during his first attempt in which he placed second to Garry Kasparov in 1980 at Dortmund. He was awarded the grandmaster title in 1984, aged nineteen—becoming the youngest grandmaster in the world at that time.

World Championship candidate

Short's assaults on the World Chess Championship title began in earnest in 1985 when he narrowly qualified from the Biel Interzonal to become Britain's first-ever candidate. He needed a playoff to advance past John van der Wiel and Eugenio Torre for the last berth, after the three had tied in regulation play. The Montpellier Candidates Tournament brought Short little success, however, as he scored 7/15 to finish in tenth place. In the next cycle, he again qualified by winning the 1987 Subotica Interzonal with Jon Speelman. The Candidates stage had by this time reverted to its traditional match format: Short defeated Gyula Sax (+2=3) in Saint John, Canada, in 1988, but then unexpectedly lost (−2=3) to his countryman, Jon Speelman, in London.

His next attempt was to prove his most successful. A last round victory over Mikhail Gurevich enabled Short to finish equal third with Vishwanathan Anand, behind Vassily Ivanchuk and Boris Gelfand, at the Manila Interzonal, thus qualifying as a Candidate for the third successive time. Defeating Gelfand (+4=2–2) in the 8/Final, he progressed to meet his former nemesis, Jon Speelman, in the quarters. This oscillating struggle went into extra-time in which the younger man eventually prevailed. In the semi-final, in 1992, the Englishman overcame the legendary Russian Anatoly Karpov (+4=4–2) in a match that was described as "the end of an era." In the final, in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Short defeated Dutchman Jan Timman (+5=5–3) to earn the right to meet defending World Champion Garry Kasparov.

According to Short and Kasparov, the head of the chess world's governing body FIDE, Florencio Campomanes, decided on the venue of the match (Manchester) and the prize fund without consulting them, in breach of FIDE rules. The British WIM and author Cathy Forbes, in her book Nigel Short: Quest for the Crown (Cadogan 1993), wrote that at no time in the 1993 bidding process was a conforming World Championship match bid actually received by FIDE. In response, Short and Kasparov promptly formed a rival organisation, the Professional Chess Association. The resulting match—sponsored by The Times newspaper—was held under the auspices of the new body in London, from September to October 1993. Kasparov won convincingly (+6−1=13)- the largest margin of victory in a world title contest since Botvinnik defeated Tal in 1961. Short's play came in for heavy criticism from BBC commentators Bill Hartston and Tony Miles.

Tournament and match titles

Short at the 2005 Corus chess tournament

Short won the British Chess Championship in 1984, 1987, and 1998, and the English Championship in 1991. He was the Commonwealth Champion in 2004, 2006 (both Mumbai) and 2008 (Nagpur). He won the 2006 EU Individual Open Chess Championship in Liverpool and took a share of second place in the 2008 edition, when it was held there again. He has finished outright first, or tied for first, in dozens of other international tournaments including Geneva (1979), Belfort, World Under 16 (1979), the BBC Master Game (1981), Amsterdam OHRA (1982), Baku (1983), Esbjerg (1984), Wijk aan Zee (1986, 1987), Reykjavík (1987), Amsterdam VSB (1988, 1991, 1992, 1993), Hastings (1987/88, 1988/89), Pärnu (1996), Groningen (1996), Tallinn/Pärnu (1998), Dhaka United Insurance (1999), Shymkent (1999), Pamplona (1999/2000), Tan Chin Nam Cup, Beijing (2000), Sigeman and Co. Malmö (2002, 2009), Gibraltar (2003, 2004), Budapest Hunguest Hotels (2003), Samba Cup, Skanderborg (2003), Taiyuan (2004), the Politiken Cup (2006), Bazna (2008), the Staunton Memorial (2009) Thailand Open (2011) and Luanda (2011). Arguably Short's finest performance came at the Amsterdam VSB tournament in 1991 when he tied for first place with Valery Salov ahead of both Kasparov and Karpov.

Short has enjoyed considerable success as a matchplayer, crushing the US Champion Lev Alburt in Foxboro 1985 by the score of 7–1 (+6=2). He has also defeated Utut Adianto (+3=3) in Jakarta 1995, Étienne Bacrot in Albert 2000 (+3=2–1), Hannes Stefansson in Reykjavík 2002 (+4=1–1), Ehsan Ghaem Maghami in Tehran 2003 (+2=4) and Zahar Efimenko in Mukachevo 2009 (+2=3–1). Short lost to Joel Benjamin by 2.5–1.5 at London 1983, drew with Eugenio Torre (+1=4–1) in Manila 1988, drew with Timman (3–3) in an exhibition match at Hilversum in 1989, defeated Boris Gulko in extra games in the PCA Candidates' quarter-finals at New York 1994, and lost to Gata Kamsky by (5.5–1.5) in the PCA semi-finals at Linares 1995.

International team record

A perennial fixture on the English national team, Short made his international team debut in the Euroteams at age seventeen at Plovdiv 1983, and has represented England continuously ever since. Short's main highlights are: team silver medals in the chess Olympiads of Thessaloniki 1984, Dubai 1986 (where he also took gold medal for the best individual performance on board three) and Thessaloniki 1988. He took a team bronze in the Novi Sad Olympiad of 1990, and led England to fourth place finishes in both 1994 and 1996. He led the English team to victory in the 1997 Euroteams at Pula, and was a member of the bronze winning team in 1992, and of fourth place teams in 1983 and 2001. He was a member of three English teams in the World Team Championships of 1985 (team bronze), 1989 (team bronze), and 1997 (team fourth). His complete log when representing England in major team events follows.

Olympiads:

• Thessaloniki 1984 2nd reserve, 3/6 (+1 =4 -1);
• Dubai 1986 board 3, 10/13 (+8 =4 -1), gold medal on board 3;
• Thessaloniki 1988 board 1, 7/12 (+3 =8 -1);
• Novi Sad 1990 board 1, 6/12 (+2 =8 -2);
• Manila 1992, board 1, 6/11 (+3 =6 -2);
• Moscow 1994, board 1, 8.5/13 (+6 =5 -2);
• Yerevan 1996, board 1, 7/12 (+3 =8 -1);
• Elista 1998, board 2, 6.5/11 (+2 =9 -0);
• Istanbul 2000, board 2, 7/12 (+3 =8 -1);
• Bled 2002, board 2, 8.5/13 (+5 =7 -1);
• Calvià 2004, board 2, 1.5/4 (+1 =1 -2);
• Turin 2006, board 2, 8/11 (+5 =6 -0);
• Dresden 2008, board 2, 7/10 (+6 =2 -2).

Euroteams:

• Plovdiv 1983 board 7, 4.5/7 (+3 =3 -1);
• Debrecen 1992 board 1, 5.5/8 (+4 =3 -1), bronze medal on board 1;
• Pula 1997, board 1, 4/7 (+2 =4 -1);
• Batumi 1999 board 1, 5/8 (+3 =4 -1);
• León 2001 board 2, 6/9 (+3 =6 -0).

World Team Championships:

• Lucerne 1985 board 4, 4/8 (+1 =6 -1);
• Lucerne 1989, board 1, 4.5/8 (+3 =3 -2), silver medal on board 1;
• Lucerne 1997, board 1, 4/8 (+0 =8 -0).

Further achievements

Short has written chess columns and book reviews for the British newspapers The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail and The Spectator. He wrote for The Sunday Telegraph for a decade and for The Guardian between 2005 and 19 October 2006. He reported on the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 in San Luis, Argentina, for the ChessBase website. He began a new column "Short Stories" for New in Chess magazine in January 2011.

He has individually coached young prodigies Pendyala Harikrishna, Sergey Karjakin, David Howell and Parimarjan Negi. He worked as national coach of the Islamic Republic of Iran from 2006–2007. His first assignment led to them unexpectedly capturing a team bronze medal at the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, in 2006. In the nine chess events at the Asian Indoor Games in Macau 2007, Iran took a silver and two bronze medals.

Short was made an Honorary Fellow of the then Bolton Institute of Higher Education in 1993 and was admitted to the Honorary degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Bolton in 2010. In 1999 he was appointed MBE, in recognition of his chess accomplishments. In August 2005, he was unanimously elected Secretary General of the Commonwealth Chess Association. In June 2006 he became its President, until stepping down in January 2008.

Controversies

Following the death of Tony Miles in 2001, Short wrote an obituary in the Sunday Telegraph in which he claimed that during the 27th Chess Olympiad in Dubai he had slept with Miles's then-girlfriend.^[3]

Also in 2001, Short was in the news as the story broke that he had been secretly playing the reclusive former chess champion Bobby Fischer online in speed chess matches. Short later retracted the claim after Fischer himself had denied it.

In January 2007, Short gave an interview to the Indian newspaper DNA, in which he called for an inquiry to examine allegations that Veselin Topalov cheated during the World Championship in San Luis.^[4]

In the same DNA interview, Short was critical of the role of members of the Appeals Committee at the 2005 and 2006 World Championships, in particular FIDE Vice President Zurab Azmaiparashvili whom he described as "singularly inappropriate for such work having, by his own admission, cheated in winning the 2003 European Championship." Azmaiparashvili filed a formal complaint to the FIDE Ethics Commission, which convened in July 2007. While dismissing the main complaints against Short, the Commission sanctioned him for a minor violation of the FIDE Code of Ethics for his use of the word "dunderhead".^[5][6] This decision was met with derision from the British Chess Magazine.

See also: Ivan Cheparinov#Handshake controversy

Personal life

Short resides in Athens and is married to drama-therapist Rhea Argyro Karageorgiou (Ρέα Αργυρώ Καραγεωργίου). The couple have two children: Kyveli Aliki (Κυβέλη Αλίκη) (born 7 July 1991) and Nicholas Darwin (Νικόλαος Δαρβίνος) (born 18 December 1998).^[7]

References

1. ^ "Bolton Chess Club". Bolton YMCA. http://www.boltonymca.co.uk/8.html. Retrieved 2008-12-27. 
2. ^ http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter65.html Entry 6429
3. ^ The obituary can be found in the Sunday Telegraph of 18 November 2008, the obituary was discussed in Issue 37 of the satirical chess publication Kingpin.
4. ^ Short take: Veselin Topalov could have been cheating, DNA, January 30, 2007
5. ^ "Case N. 2/07 JUDGEMENT rendered by the FIDE ETHICS COMMISSION" (PDF). FIDE. 2007-07-29. http://www.fide.com/news/download/Judgement02-07.pdf. Retrieved 2008-02-06. 
6. ^ Chessbase article on the FIDE ethics Commission decision
7. ^ http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=12181&kpage=77

Further reading

• Short, David (1982). Nigel Short, Chess Prodigy: His Career and Best Games. Faber & Faber. ISBN 0-571-11786-4. 
• Forbes, Cathy (1993). Nigel Short: Quest for the Crown. Cadogan. ISBN 1-85744-048X. 
• Lawson, Dominic (1993). The Inner Game. Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-60949-2. 
• Short, Nigel (1989). Nigel Short's Chess Skills. Hamlyn. ISBN 978-0600557432. 

External links

• FIDE rating card for Nigel Short
• Nigel Short player profile at ChessGames.com
• Interview with Nigel Short by LatestChess.com, year 2007.
• Nigel Short turns forty (chessbase.com news)
• Short speaks of his mistaken belief he had played Fischer
• Audio Interview of Nigel Short speaking of his supposed (now repudiated) online games with Bobby Fischer

Persondata
Name	Short, Nigel
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1 June 1965
Place of birth	Leigh, England
Date of death
Place of death