22nd April, 2003

IT only took a "short", last round draw lasting nine moves for Nigel
Short to record his biggest tournament victory of recent years, as the
former world championship challenger took first place a full point ahead
of Judit Polgar at the Hunguest Hotels Super Chess Tournament in
Budapest.

It's been a long road to rehabilitation for the Englishman, who became a
household name in 1993 by becoming Garry Kasparov's last, official FIDE
challenger (after beating Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman) in a world
title match. Despite his valiant efforts in the match, Short suffered a
huge psychological blow to his game when he lost heavily, 12.5-7.5 (and
-5 after nine games) - a result that took him many years to recover
from.

Greece-based Short has become a chess globetrotter of late rather than
competing in elite tournaments, which he once commented to me that he
was seriously considering giving up as they were "zonking his brain." In
the past year he has played in China, the Dominican Republic, and even
Iran. The outspoken columnist for the Sunday Telegraph has even turned
his hand to being the match commentator last year for the Vladimir
Kramnik-Deep Fritz match in Bahrain. All of which indicated a
retirement of sorts from the elite tournament circuit.
Now, for the first time in his career, remarkably Short could be on the
cusp of breaking the 2700 Elo barrier following his superb result in
Budapest. As a player, he was always much better in match-play
situations rather than tournament play; though he has in the past won
some top tournaments, namely Reykjavik 1987 (ahead of Tal), Amsterdam
1988, Parnu 1996, and Pamplona 1999 - his last victory of note up until
Budapest.

Many forget that Short was once the world no.3 on the July list of 1988
behind chess superstars Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. On the
latest world rankings published on April 1st, he's No.18 with an Elo
rating of 2686 - just one-point ahead of his January 1992 high of 2685.
Welcome back, Nigel!

Final standing: 1 N Short (England) 6.5/9; 2 J Polgar (Hungary) 5.5; 3 P
Leko (Hungary) 5; 4-6 B Gelfand (Israel), C Lutz (Germany), P Acs
(Hungary) 4.5; 7-8 V Korchnoi (Switzerland), S Movsesian (Slovakia) 4; 9
F Berkes (Hungary) 3.5; 10 Z Almasi (Hungary) 3.

N Short - B Gelfand
Hunguest Hotels, (6)
Sicilian Najdorf
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Be2 e5 7 Nb3 Be7 8 0-0
0-0 9 Kh1 Nc6 10 Be3 Be6 11 Qd2 a5 12 Rfd1 a4 13 Nc1 Qc8 14 f3 Rd8 15
Bb6 Rd7 16 Nd5 Bd8 17 Bxd8 Qxd8 18 Bb5 Qa5 19 c4 Qxd2 20 Rxd2 Rdd8 21
Nb6 Ra5 22 Ne2 a3 23 b3 Kf8 24 Rad1 Ke7 25 Kg1 Ne8 26 Nc3 Nc7 27 Bxc6
bxc6 28 b4 Ra7 29 c5 Ne8 30 b5 Rc7 31 g4 Kf8 32 Nba4 cxb5 33 Nxb5 Rb7 34
Nac3 Rc8 35 cxd6 Bd7 36 Rb1 Rc6 37 Kf2 f6 38 Nxa3 Rxb1 39 Naxb1 Nxd6 40
a4 Ke7 41 Nd5+ Kf7 42 Rb2 Ra6 43 Rb6 Rxb6 44 Nxb6 Bc6 45 Nc3 Nb7 46 Ke3
Ke6 47 Kd3 Na5 48 Nb5 Nb3 49 Kc4 Nd2+ 50 Kc5 Bb7 51 Nc4 Nxf3 52 Ncd6 1-0

JOHN B HENDERSON