| May-22-05 | | WMD: The 1980 Phillips & Drew supertournament was a nightmare for the young Short: +0 -9 =4. It's amazing he couldn't put Miles away in this first round game. There are too many winning lines to count! |
|
Mar-03-08
 | | FSR: An utterly brilliant swindle by Miles. Note that this disaster (for Short) occurred in Round 1 and can't have put him in a great frame of mind. The 14-year-old Short, 10 years younger than Miles, already had a 2-1 score against Miles before this game. From the tournament book, regarding Short: "This was the player who gave the selectors the greatest difficulty. Would he be crushed by the relentless pressure of the great strength of his opponents?" Yep, pretty much. He finished last with 2 points, less than half what the next-to-last-place finisher scored. Miles, on the other hand, must have been greatly heartened by this game. He proceeded to score 8.5/13, tying for first with Andersson and Korchnoi. |
|
Mar-03-08
| | FSR: Sorry, one of those Miles games I referred to above was against RICHARD Miles; Tony Miles and Short were 1-1 before this game. |
|
Apr-02-10
 | | GrahamClayton: 61...ef5 allows White to draw with perpetual check, eg 62.♕f5+ ♔h6 63.♕f4+.
The threat of 62.♕g8# forces Black to return a piece. |
|
| Aug-14-11 | | ToTheDeath: Fantastic save! RIP Tony |
|
| Mar-25-13 | | dumbgai: Come on, Short. Play 49...Qxb6! |
|
| Mar-25-13 | | mcgee: 'I've swindled him once before. Maybe I'll do it again!' (Miles, BBC Master Game final v Short 1980-1. He didn't.) |
|
| Jan-24-17 | | Albion 1959: What a sickener for Short ! This must have knocked his confidence and in the first round, since his subsequent results bore testimony. However to his credit he proved that he was made of harder metal and showed his real character by eventually getting the better of Miles and went onto to defeat Karpov and got a shot at the title against Kasparov ! |
|
| Mar-06-24 | | vonKrolock: Caught napping (or: 'in <short> trousers' as we say here...) |
|
| Mar-07-24 | | Granny O Doul: In "Nigel Short, Chess Prodigy", the author chides Miles for not resigning this game at the proper time. |
|
Mar-07-24
 | | Sally Simpson: Was this the not the game where Nigel left the board occasionally to play Space Invaders. Nigel use to post here and help correct a Short - Miles game that had been wrongly labelled as v Tony Miles. Short vs R J Miles, 1976 (kibitz #42) |
|
Mar-07-24
 | | perfidious: <Geoff>, while not having seen my copy of the work recounting Short's early career in many a moon, I believe he was noted to have stepped away for dates with the little buggers. |
|
Mar-07-24
| | Sally Simpson: Hi Perfidious,
There is mention here Nigel Short (kibitz #7959) But I'm pretty sure that was not the source I picked it up from. Maybe Harry mentioned it in his Times column and I've heard about it from there. <Nigel Short's first major distinction was qualifying for the British Championship three days before his 12th birthday. He attracted a different kind of attention three years later when he drew a first-round game at the strong London 1980 tournament with GM Tony Miles --- while playing the video game Space Invaders in between moves. Miles swindled a draw! Harry Golombek seemed somewhat unreal, he indeed suggest to Nigel that leaving the room to play Space Invaders was inappropriate, even for a 14-year old.> Maybe it's in the 'Inner Game' I'll get around to checking it. |
|
| Mar-07-24 | | Olavi: For instance Jan Timman mentions it in his Studies and Games, in connection to this tournament in general, not this game specifically. He comments that all comparison to Bobby Fischer is therefore out of place. |
|
| Mar-07-24 | | Olavi: Also Jon Speelman in his Best Games. |
|
Mar-08-24
| | Sally Simpson: Yes the Space Invaders event is well documented. I knew I had seen it before. According to Stuart Rueben CHESS November 2023. This game had a couple of adjournments covering two days. So it appears both players had played their 11th and 12th of May games before finishing this one. I'm now thinking that Nigel was playing Space Invaders when he could have and should have been analysing this one which he gave up as won. The pub Sandy Bells had a Space Invaders machine around the same time. Everyone hated the noise it made. 'boom, boom, boom. boom, wheeeeeee...bang.' The regulars and tourists were there for the live music (and the chess) not this racket.
One day a well known folk band from Ireland turned up for a session. The machine was unplugged and dumped outside in the street to make room for the band and the punters. It was never plugged back in and it was removed a few days later. |
|
Mar-12-24
| | Sally Simpson: More on the Space Invaders...
The second adjournment took place another room away from the tournament hall. It was only during this session that Nigel was leaving the board to defend the planet from the Invaders. Leonard Barden adds that he regrets not pulling Nigel away from "..the pesky robot." December 1998 BCM, page 666. The same BCM also adds that although Nigel has said this tournament slowed down his career, in August of the same year he came 2nd in the world junior championship won by Kasparov. (they drew their individual game.) World Junior Championship (1980) Space Invaders v Classic Books.
Further reading on the junior event revealed that Kasparov too once rushed a game because he had an off the board distraction. "He loves to read. He also does this during tournaments - though now with caution: he remembers how during a tournament game he suddenly came to mind that the 'Count of Monte-Christo' was waiting in the hotel room. Garri made some hasty moves and ruined a good position. " https://www.chess.com/blog/introubl... |
|
Kibitzing
