Nigel Short (right) is one of my few favourite chess legends ever ! He was crown to be the Vice World Champion in the controversial 1993 World Championship Match against another legend - Gary Kasparov. What i like about Nigel the most is not only of his high quality games but because of his outspoken style.
Yesterday i read and interesting article from the Closet GM blog , the author of the blog was quoting Nigel's saying from Nigel's 2008 Commonwealth Chess Championship report for the New in Chess magazine. Nigel is saying a very "serious" thing to the organizer for scheduling a two (2) classical game per day. The "serious" thing Nigel said is so serious that i suggest you read it yourself at the closetgm blog...or better still if you read the full article from the New in Chess Magazine. I hope i can read the full article, anybody can share it with me?
One more thing, for the most beautifull games ever played by Nigel is of course the classic Kh2-h6 matting with his king in his game against Timman in Tilburg, 1991.
Nigel Short - Jan Timman [B04]
Tilburg 53/115 Tilburg 53/115, 1991
1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 g6 5.Bc4 Nb6 6.Bb3 Bg7 7.Qe2 Nc6 8.0-0 0-0 9.h3 a5 10.a4 dxe5 11.dxe5 Nd4 12.Nxd4 Qxd4 13.Re1 e6 14.Nd2 Nd5 15.Nf3 Qc5 16.Qe4 Qb4 17.Bc4 Nb6 18.b3 Nxc4 19.bxc4 Re8 20.Rd1 Qc5 21.Qh4 b6 22.Be3 Qc6 23.Bh6 Bh8 24.Rd8 Bb7 25.Rad1 Bg7 26.R8d7 Rf8 27.Bxg7 Kxg7 28.R1d4 Rae8 29.Qf6+ Kg8 30.h4 h5 (diagram) White is of course better. His peices especially the rook's is controlling the d file, the knight will have a deadly post at g4 and his queen is in a deadly square. A nice position you might think but how white have to proceed. Black's Bb7 and Qc6 batteries is eyeing for mate on g2 so white can't proceed with 31.Ng5 or 31.g4. Let see how Nigel continue...
31.Kh2!! We were thought that manuevere your king only when entering the endgame which... generally means that it must be done only after the heavy pieces have been traded but... what the hell Nigel is doing here?...Actually we had witness the great king manuever ever in a game of chess ! 31...Rc8 32.Kg3 Rce8 33.Kf4 Bc8 34.Kg5 Timman resign because he can't handle the "deadly king threat" - Kh6 and later Qg7++ checkmate 1-0
Nigel's photo from latestchess.com
2 comments:
I've seen this position before. Short's 4 King moves are incredible!! With Black's Queen and the 2 rooks still on the chessboard, White's King leads the attack!! Awesome man!
Collin
Post a Comment