Naiditsch wins the Baku Chess International

Arkadij Naiditsch, playing Black, beat Nigel Short in the ninth round to win the Baku Chess International tournament.

Update on Nigel Short

Nigel Short beat overnight leader Vadim Milov with the Black pieces in round 8 of the Baku Chess International.

He co-leads with 6.5 points and faces German GM Arkadij Naiditsch (2654) in the final round. Level with Short and Naiditsch on 6.5 are GMs Vadim Malakhatko and Gadir Guseinov.

The event is strong, with 8 of the players rated over 2600.

Nigel Short in Baku

Earlier this week, I mentioned that Nigel Short was returning to Baku for the first time in 20 years. In what looks a strong open tournament, Nigel co-leads on 3/3 with 6 other grandmasters including fellow 2600+ players Loek van Wely, Alexei Fedorov and Vadim Milov.

You can follow the event online.

Interestingly Malcolm Pein reported this week that Nigel Short is being charged with 'bringing the game into disrepute' by FIDE. Throwing stones in glass houses comes to mind!

Chess in the attic: December 1983 (part 2)

The lead stories in issue 2 of Chess Express back in December 1983 were Garry Kasparov finding life tough at the top against Viktor Korchnoi, and Nigel Short making history in Russia.

Kasparov was trailing Korchnoi 1-0 after 5 games of their Candidates semi final match, but the 'stop press' did reveal he had adjourned with some winning chances in game 6. As we know, Kasparov won the adjournment, went on to win the match and start his saga of duels for the World crown with Anatoly Karpov.

Short meanwhile was becoming the first Western player in modern times to win a tournament in the Soviet Union, scoring 9 out of 13 in the Baku International. Incredibly, despite the field including Mark Taimanov and a number of other grandmasters, the result was not good enough for a GM norm, and 18-year old Short remained an IM.

10 years later, Nigel Short was the man who eliminated Karpov from World Championship reckoning, and went on to play Kasparov for the title. This week, he goes back to play in Baku, birthplace of Kasparov, for the first time since 1983.

Short's classic king march

Last week, I posted an inspired king march by Mikhail Tal. Today's game shows Nigel Short launching an incredible attack with his king in the midst of a ferocious middlegame battle with Jan Timman.

Here's what Nigel had to say to Chess Tales about this modern classic:

"I think I could have won with Nh4! (threatening Nxg6! and Rh4 at some moment) I didn't see it at all at the time: I think it was pointed out by Krasenkow (or maybe even his wife) later. Actually I was in quite a bit of time trouble. And yes, I did see the idea of K to h6 when I played Kh2.", Nigel Short

Nigel Short - Jan Timman, Tilburg 1991

1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 g6 5.Bc4 Nb6 6.Bb3 Bg7 7.Qe2 Nc6 8.O-O O-O 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

This is where Nh4! would have been strong.

30.h4 h5

And now Nigel treated us to his incredible king march:

31.Kh2!! Rc8 32.Kg3 Rce8 33.Kf4 Bc8 34.Kg5 1-0

Bumping into Nigel Short

How often does Nigel Short ask you for advice on playing Kasparov?

That's what happened on Friday to Chess Tales. Ok, it was a 'tongue in cheek' request, but it was the real Nigel Short.

"I could do with some tips on playing Kasparov. Can you give me some advice?" Nigel Short

I'd posted a response on a MySpace forum about chess improvement, suggesting they checked out our Saturday tips on Chess Tales, when Nigel appeared asking for help. A couple of emails later, I had a new 'friend' on MySpace and a couple of comments from one of the truly great chess players to use on Chess Tales (Stay tuned).

Check out Nigel's fledgling MySpace blog for details of his globetrotting playing itinerary.

(p.s. My work, when I'm not playing chess or writing about it, involves helping businesses prepare for the future; I'm particularly interested in the Internet (Web2.0), Social Networks (like MySpace), Blogging and all that. You can check out one of my recent presentations.)

Soul destroying chess blunders

Chess can be the most soul destroying sport; in what other game can you play beautifully for 4 hours, dominate your opponent, and then throw it all away in a split second of madness?

That's the way top level (or even club level) chess is, where a single blunder, no matter how good your previous moves have been, can lose you a game in an instant; all that mental effort you've expended over the course of the game just wasted.

Blunders in chess come from a variety of sources: mental fatigue, the pressures of a ticking chess clock (as happened to Nigel Short), impatience, or simple oversight.

Rarer is a combination played in the wrong order, but it happens. You calculate a winning combination, check a few other lines, then go to play your 'win'. Only you don't! In your haste you play the moves in the wrong order or simply forget to play the first move. This position from the Paris Championships back in 97 is a case in point:




















After a double edged middle-game, I'd gained the advantage with White against Maria Nepeina-Leconte, a Ukranian International Master. I thought for a while, saw a winning combination, checked my analysis, and went to play the line. I played my first move correctly, but then managed to mix up the variations in my head and hastily played the wrong second move:

1. Ng6! (Ne6!! is even better) fg 2. Qxh6??

I had calculated and intended to play Rf8+ which wins simply, but for some reason my hand moved the Queen.

2. ... Bf5 3. Rxf5?

White could still force a draw with 3. Rb3!, but now Black is winning.

3. ... gf 4. Qe6+ Kg7 5. Qd7+ Kh6 6. Qxf5 Re1??

Which allowed me to escape with a draw by perpetual!

The search for heroic chess failures

Chris Wardle's "Haymarket" post set me thinking about heroic chess failures, those chess players who have achieved a Eurovision style 'null point'. Taimanov and Larsen made a good stab at it in the '71 candidates, but don't really qualify because their opponent was Bobby Fischer on a hot streak.

I consulted my bible on all matters relating to chess statistics (the 2 dozen or so tournament tables in 'Korchnoi's 400 Best Games') and was bitterly disappointed to find the closest contender, Cuellar at the '73 Interzonal, had managed a princely 3 draws out of 18 games; definitely failure, but not heroically bad.

I then remembered I was making up the rules in this game, and could change them with impunity, so I switched tack to heroic blunders. One game sprung to mind immediately, Short marching his king up the board in a 'won ending' and setting up a self mate in the only way possible; fortunately, Streatham and Brixton have already written about this and a host of horrors: "The Worst Move On The Board". In fairness to Short one of his other king marches, against Timman, has gone down amongst the great manoeuvres of chess history.

One thing the S&B site talked about was the difficulty in spotting pieces moving backwards (in Short's case the killer was a Bishop returning to c8 to deliver mate) which made me smile and remember a conversation with Bronstein; David was buzzing with excitement, as he enthused about a position where a Queen had returned to d1 to deliver a knockout blow, and how even some of the very strongest players had failed to spot it.

In a possibly unbeatable bid for worst game by a World Champion, I present:
Viktor Korchnoi - Boris Spassky, Leningard 1948
1 e4 c5; 2 Nf3 d6; 3 d4 cd; 4 Nd4 Nf6; 5 Nc3 g6; 6 f4 Bg4; 7 Bb5+ Nbd7; 8 Bd7+ Qd7; 9 Qd3 e5; 10 Nf3 Bf3; 11 Qf3 Qg4; 12 Nd5 1-0