Kasparov-Short (1993)

The Time World Chess Championship

As Kasparov announced it before his match with Nigel Short was “short”. Organized by Ray Keene and Sponsor by the London Time in London the controversial match began at the Savoy Theater in London on September 7, 1993

In game one, Kasparov opened the match and the game with a Ruy Lopez. He build up immense pressure with powerful play, which was met with good defence by the English GM. However short of time, Nigel missed 24…Bg7 the best continuation to draw the game and instead went into deep trouble. Kasparov gambled with the losing 36.Bxg7 instead the natural 37. Re7 with a clear victory but lucky for him the English flag went down on move 38 with a winning position. A Najdorf was in the menu of the second round. The players followed the usual pattern of this opening until Kasparov equalized with the strong 21…Nc4 followed by the radical 23…e5!? with a closed position. Surprisingly Kasparov decided to sacrifice the exchange but got enough compensation for it until he missed 2…Re8 and a clear draw. Instead he went into a worst endgame and finally got his deliverance to another Short’s zeitnot and the expecting mistake which ended with the point shared.

In the 3rd game, Kasparov went to another Spanish but this time he choose a quieter development which gave him a more easily game than the one played in round one. Despite the treat on his king, the champion went to break the center before to provoke Nigel with a strong 26.g4!. With a strong advantage Gary missed the point with 27.Nd4 and instead got an unclear position when the English sacrificed his Knight on g3! with mat possibilities! Of course Kasparov found the only moves and eventually converted his uncertain position to a full victory thanks to another zeitnot (10 moves in one minutes) from his opponent followed by the fatal blunder.

In the next game Short improved an old game Spassky-Fischer of 1971 14.Nd1, which had at least the merit to make Kasparov lose a lot of time on his clock. Short took a lot of risk, maybe too much and finally after an inaccurate defence he went immediately in trouble with an ultimate and desperate attack, which blowed up on move 40. With a score of 3.5-0.5 many observers thought that the match was already over after those four games.

Kasparov switches for 1.d4 but the Nimzo didn’t give any advantage after many pieces were exchanged after 15 moves. In the sixth game, Short couldn’t easily find a good continuation after an unsatisfactory opening finished with a weak 14. b4 following of many exchanges. However Short maneuvered well and manage to save the draw by playing an interesting sacrifice of Bishop on move 26.

In the next game Kasparov went back for the sharp and open with a Spanish. Short played a doubtfully new move 13…Ba8 then the champion, after stopping any black’s chance on the Queen-side, went to smash the King—side by sacrificing a pawn and later get it back with… a winning position. Even missing the winning continuation with 24. Kg2 he had enough positional resource and no problem to claim the full point after 36 moves.

For the fifth Sicilian opening Short thought 47 minutes to play his 13th move 0-0-0 and went to a full and rarely Queen sacrifice with the 16. Ne4!. White played then with Rook and Knight for the Queen but a pawn on d7 made the position completely unclear. Then the position became completely in favor of the English after Kasparov killed himself by taking a poisoned pawn on h2 with his Queen. But it was said that the first English success will not come this day and in (another) zeitnot the poor Nigel missed the easy 36. Rh1 and the victory.

No decisive advantage was noticed in the game 11 and 12 and both of them finished with equality.

Kasparov was better in the 13th and in the 14th but he couldn’t improve his slightly better position of the middle game.

The Champion went for a new and interesting plan in the opening of the 15th game and after the tactical 21st move he put the challenger into a very difficult position. Some inaccurate moves played by Short (32…c5?) made his position even worst and finally he couldn’t avoid the ‘hara-kiri’ and the fatal issue. With a plus of six points we could expect that will play relax and draw the remaining games.

However in the 16th with an easy and equal game, Gary decided to force the position and, as it usual in this case, went into a dead trap. Let us also say that the first victory of the British Master, which deserved a lot of respect after the conduct of the second part of the game, was concluded with a magisterial finish 38. Nf5! with a immediate resignation by the champion.

This time Kasparov got the lesson and didn’t want to take more risk in the last four games. He controlled the operation with great security want to give any chance to his opponent to score anther victory.

Finally the match ended four games before its schedule but because of signed contracts with the Theater and English TV Channel 4, the players agreed to play some rapid chess games of 20 minutes with imposed opening.

Short drew a French defence, Kasparov won the Queen Gambit, but lost in 15 moves! with a King Gambit after which Kasparov said that he had to start the game with a completely lost position! Finally the Champion won the last Sicilian game. After this match the chess world was divided in two with two championships and two champions.

London IX-X 1993

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Total
Kasparov G 1 ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 12.5
Short N 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 7.5

Europe Echecs published a long aftermatch interview of Kasparov: “The title of World Chess Champion is based on the recognization by the mass media. The only legitimate champion is me because I played Short who beat Timman and Karpov. Check with CNN, Herald Tribue or the New York Times. Soon or later all players will legitimate PCA cycle. Why do you want me to challenge Karpov? I played three times gainst him and didn’t lose any of them. Because he beat Timman? If he play the PCA cycle and resistant to the young talents who are waiting for me then we could play again but only in this case. But today I don’t believe that Karpov could beat even Short.

With the PCA, I am ready to make an agreement with FIDE similar to those made in Tennis and Golf. In one side an organization which will take care to organize events for professionals and a Fderation who will take care to promote ches around the world.Those organizations should be run by professional and not Campomanes or me.”

Game 1

Game 2

Game 3

Game 4

Game 5

Game 6

Game 7

Game 8

Game 9

Game 10

Game 11

Game 12

Game 13

Game 14

Game 15

Game 16

Game 17

Game 18

Game 19

Game 20

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Total
Short, N 0 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 7 ½
Kasparov, G 1 ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 12 ½