Kasparov - Short PCA World Championship Match (1993)
2-21 January 1993
DRAFT <Chessical>
The players
Garry Kasparov was 30 years old and Nigel Short was 28. Their respective ratings were 2805 and 2665.
Short had only won a single game against Kasparov since 1980, and his score immediately before the championship (excluding blitz) was +1,=4,-10.
"When Kasparov was asked to predict, some months ago, who his challenger would be, and how the match would go, he said: 'It will be Short, and it will be short.'" – "The Independent", William Hartston , Sunday 31st January 1993. He also stated that Viswanathan Anand was "a more dangerous player…and will probably be my next challenger" (Chess, May 1993, vol.58, no.2, p.11).
The emergence of the PCA bid
FIDE had allowed only one week for the bids for the world championship after the end of the Short-Timman match. (Chess, January 1993, vol.58, no.3, p.5). Manchester (England) offered 2,538 million Swiss francs as part of its attempt to win the bid for the 2000 Olympic Games. A second bid also emerged from UK with "Channel 4" TV offering 2,616 million Swiss francs.
On 22nd February, Kasparov accepted Manchester's bid as it, unlike the "Channel 4" bid, had a solid bank guarantee. On 23rd February, FIDE announced the winning bid as Manchester's.
Short was on a ferry to Greece and could not be contacted, but on 24th February he discovered the terms and considered that the match had been "woefully undersold" by FIDE . (Chess, July 1993, vol.58, no.4, p.4).
Short phoned his friend the well-connected journalist Dominic Lawson who in turn contacted Raymond Keene and Kasparov. Kasparov feeling that "At last after eight years, a challenger I can talk to". (Chess, January 1993, vol.58, no.3, p.5). suggested that they run their own world championship.
On February 26th, a fax from Simpsons in the Strand restaurant in London announced the formation of the Professional Chess Association (PCA). Raymond Keene was deeply involved and his phone number was on the press release. Bids for what was now the PCA World Championship were invited to be submitted.
There was little feeling of friendship between the two contenders. Short said,"We have had several differences of opinion but business is business – in this we are totally together". (Chess, April 1993, vol.58, no1, p.9).
Short defended himself from criticism by his home-town Manchester chess fans, "One thing I cannot understand about this is why it should be considered wrong to increase one's own income". (Chess, July 1993, vol.58, no.4, p.4). Kasparov saw a way to break his enemy Campomanes' and FIDE's control of the world championship and "to take professional chess to the levels of tennis and golf". (Chess, July 1993, vol.58, no.4, p.4).
The situation was confused as groups and individuals manoeuvred to secure the PCA's approval of their bid. Keene was involved both in founding the PCA and with two bids from London (The Times and "The London Standard"/London Chess Group bids). Confusion reigned as Manchester approached Kasparov in Linares to discuss terms, whilst Keene attempted to dissuade him for going with Manchester and FIDE. In this febrile environment, "The Times" on March 30th declared it had secures the bid from the PCA only for Short to deny it. (Chess, July 1993, vol.58, no.4, p.5).
FIDE refused to hand over the running of the world championship to the PCA. Instead, on March 31st, the defeated candidates Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman were declared to be FIDE's world championship contenders. (Chess, July 1993, vol.58, no.4, p.5).
The match
Out of five bids, the player chose that of "The Times" newspaper of London and Teleworld a Dutch teletext company. The match provoked unprecedented interest in the UK, but its branding as "The Times World Chess Championship" diminished the role of the PCA.
Short recognised that he was the underdog ,"I am going to do much better than people think…I do not see any reason why not. I actually relish the opportunity to show him that I can play some good chess and show that I have learned from my mistakes" (Chess, October 1993, vol.58, no.7, p.5).
The match was held in the Savoy Theatre and shown on teletext across Europe. The Dutch co-sponsors also operated a telephone "predict the move" game, but this was abandoned due to a low uptake (Chess, October 1993, vol.58, no.7, p.11).
"Kasparov fizzingly coiled, scowling, frowning, grimacing, lip-scrunching, head-scratching, nose-pulling, chin-rubbing, occasionally slumping down over his crossed paws like a melodramatically puzzled dog. Short more impassive, bland-faced, sharp-elbowed and stiff-postured, as if he'd forgotten to take the coat-hanger out of his jacket". (Julian Barnes, ‘The World Chess Championship', Letters from London 1990-1995 (Picador, 1995), p.272)
Kasparov went six games up before Short scored his only win. After that four more draws gave Kasparov the PCA title. In terms of the score-line it was the most one-sided world championship in the twentieth century since Lasker - Janowski World Championship Match (1910).
In actual play, however, it was hard fought. Despite defeats, Short continued to play aggressively and was unlucky not to have scored at least two wins by the half-way stage of the match.
In Game 1, both players had winning opportunities but Short lost on time a pawn up. In Game 3 he attacked vigorously with a Knight sacrifice but then miscalculated and lost. Game 6 ended in perpetual check. Short's trainer Lubomir Kavalek departed the match at Game 8 after personal disagreements (Chess, November 1993, vol.58, no.8, p.4). and was replaced by Robert Huebner . (Chess, November 1993, vol.58, no.8, p.6). In Game 10, Short sacrificed his queen for a winning position, but Kasparov escaped with a draw. Short's first victory was in Game 16, and after that Kasparov seemed happy to draw the remaining games to win the title 12½ to 7½.
Kasparov as Champion won £1,062,500 and a Waterford crystal knight trophy, Short took £637,500.
Aftermath
FIDE stripped Kasparov of the FIDE World Championship; there was now to be two world champions Karpov (FIDE) and Kasparov (PCA) .
The Professional Chess Association was to last only three years and Kasparov later stated "The refusal to play the match under the aegis of FIDE was the worst blunder of my entire chess career. This decision led to the unexpected revival of Karpov ..I should have agreed to play in Manchester – and only then , after defending the title of FIDE Champion, thought about setting up a professional chess Association." (Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov, Part 2, p.490).
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MissScarlett: <<Short had only won a single game against Kasparov since 1980, and his score immediately before the championship (excluding blitz) was +1,=4,-10. >>
I'm not sending any emails to anyone, but this statement is just plainly wrong. Short had won three rapidplay games prior to the title match (two in London, one in Paris). Unfortunately, a lot of the game type data in the <cg.com> DB is incorrect. I submitted corrections to several Kasparov-Short games a couple of weeks back, but God only knows when they might appear. What are the people running this site doing all day? Anyone would think they were busy with more important things!
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Courtesy of <Ohio>
Short had only won a single game against Kasparov since 1980, and his score immediately before the championship (excluding blitz) was +1,=4,-10.
"immediately" is insufficient. "in the previous 12 months", or something similar is needed.
Short phoned his friend the well-connected journalist Dominic Lawson who in turn contacted Raymond Keene and Kasparov.
I think a hypen before "the" and after "Lawson" is called for.
Kasparov feeling that "At last after eight years, a challenger I can talk to". (Chess, January 1993, vol.58, no.3, p.5). suggested that they run their own world championship.
This needs work. It's a runon as is. Perhaps "Kasparov, feeling that "At last after eight years, a challenger I can talk to.", <the period needs to be behind the closing quotation mark or the whole sentence crumbles> suggested that they run their own world championship."
to dissuade him for going
from going
the player chose that of "The Times" newspaper of London and Teleworld a Dutch teletext company.
Needs either a comma or a hyphen after "Teleworld".
After that four more draws gave Kasparov the PCA title.
Needs a comma after "that".
In terms of the score-line it was
Could use a comma after "score-line".
in the twentieth century
I think that phrase can be deleted with no loss of meaning.
In actual play, however, it was hard fought.
I see no reason for this sentence to start a new paragraph. I am sure at least 1 out of 10,000 sentences can use the word "however", but I don't think this is the one. I'd almost like the line starting "In terms of the score-line" to continue on as one sentence, but that would be really wordy. Breaking it into two sentences does create a need for some connecting word/phrase, but "however" is almost always a clunky way to do it. A first try:
In terms of the score-line, it was the most one-sided world championship since Lasker - Janowski World Championship Match (1910), but in actual play, it was hard fought.
Despite defeats, Short continued to play aggressively and was unlucky not to have scored at least two wins by the half-way stage of the match. In Game 1, both players had winning opportunities but Short lost on time a pawn up.
I think "Despite some early losses" would be better than "Despite defeats". I'd prefer "Pawn" to "pawn".
In Game 3 he attacked
Could use a comma after "3".
Kasparov as Champion won £1,062,500 and a Waterford crystal knight trophy, Short took £637,500.
Runon. Should have a period after "trophy" and "Short" start a new sentence.
there was now to be two world champions
"were" would be correct in place of "was".
<Short took £637,500.>
Either "took home" or simply a repetition of "won" would be better
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Courtesy of <zanzibar>
from the Mark Weeks link:
<The match would last 24 games, of which all 24 were to be played. ... In case of a drawn match, Kasparov would keep his 'title'.>
The time control was 40 moves in 2 hours, then 20 moves in 1 hour, followed by adjournment. The prize fund was 1.700.000 UKP (at the time about 2.500.000 US$), with 5/8 for the winner.
<It was played in the heart of London at the Savoy Theater ... could hold 1000 spectators>
<The clocks were standard mechanical chess clocks ed- was this the last use of analog clocks?>
Kasparov's seconds were GMs Alexander Beliavsky and Zurab Azmaiparashvili. Short's seconds were GMs Robert Huebner and Jon Speelman. Yuri Averbach was the chief arbiter. The press room was directed by Eric Schiller, assisted by Byron Jacobs.
<The match began on 7 September. ...>
<After Kasparov reached 12.5 points in the 20th game, the players decided to stop the match and fill the schedule with exhibition games ... ed- no mention of when the last game was played>
<During the match, the PCA announced that the qualifying tournament for the next PCA cycle would be held at Groningen in December. The first seven players in Groningen, plus Short, would then be seeded into a series of Candidate matches.
http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/919...
>
Kibitzing
