„It will be Short and the match will be short!“
When asked about the potential challenger during the Candidates matches before the 1993 matches, Kasparov rattled this remark.
The World Champion showed great insight, especially with the first part of the statement. Because 8 years after becoming the first-ever British candidate for the World Chess Championship, former British prodigy and grandmaster Nigel Short also managed to become the first-ever British Challenger, after beating Speelman, Karpov and Timman in Candidates matches.
His match against Karpov was of particular significance – for the first time since 1984, after five consecutive Karpov – Kasparov matches – the streak was broken and Karpov had to face an early exit. Not without reason was the result of Short – Karpov match described as „the end of an era“.
Alas, the second part of Kasparov’s statement also turned out to be correct. After 4 games, he was already leading 3-0 and after 10 games 5-0. Even though Short managed to score a consolation goal in game 16, it didn’t alter the outcome. Kasparov defended his title after 20 games – 4 games ahead of the schedule.
Even so, the final result wasn’t the true reflections of the events happening on the board. In the very first game, Short flagged in a better position. In the first part of the match, he obtained several „close-to-winning positions“ against Garry’s Najdorf, but always failed to deliver the knock-out punch. Had he won just one game, the match could have taken a completely alternative direction.
But as they say, a good player is always lucky.
Despite this ‘whitewash’, the genius of Nigel Short should be appreciated. Even though today’s generations connect him with controversies, such as breaking away from FIDE, controversial comments about women and his last-minute withdrawal from the race for FIDE presidency, they rarely appreciate how successful he was in his prime.
Apart from reaching the Candidate matches, he was a four-time British Champion and a winner of many International tournaments, out of which I’d like to single out his victories in Wijk aan Zee in 1986 and 1987, in Hastings in 1987/1988 and 1988/1989 and VSB Amsterdam in 1991 (with Salov, ahead of both Karpov and Kasparov).
And even though probably none of us studied his games in great detail, we all know at least one – the famous Kh2-Kg3-Kf4-Kg5-Kh6 king walk against Timman.
There are probably other gems in his biography, which will I believe will be brought in the limelight in future – hopefully in the format of autobiography, annotated by Nigel himself.
I understand that many people aren’t particularly fond of him. I personally disagreed with a lot of things he wrote in his „Short stories“ column for New In Chess Magazine.
But love him or hate him, you can’t deny he is one of the great players in the history of our game.
And today he celebrates his 54th birthday! We think it is worthy of this „SHORT“ congratulatory post!
Happy birthday, Mr. FIDE Vice President!
(If you like posts such as this one, check our complete list of Chess Birthdays )