Tall order
Raymond Keene
0 n 10 January Nigel Short commences the most momentous match of his career. He plays the Dutch Grandmaster Jan Timman in the final of the world cham- pionship qualifying tournament which will decide who challenges Gary Kasparov for his crown next summer. Short-Timman will take place in El Escorial just outside Madrid. I predict a win for Nigel by a two-point margin, with the match probably going the full distance. When I last gazed into my crystal ball for this cycle it trans- pired that I was the only commentator to predict accurately the score and results of the semi-final matches between Short and Karpov and Tim man and Yusupov.
The overall career score between Nigel and Jan is 9 wins to Short and 11 to Timman with 15 draws, but the Dutchman pulled slightly ahead by winning a couple of games when Nigel was a relatively inexperienced teenager. Their clashes have been characterised by extreme violence and bloodthirstiness, and I expect their match to be loaded with cut-and-thrust games. Timman's style is difficult to pin down. He reminds me rather of a lumber- ing Indian war elephant, heavily armed and extremely dangerous but with a tendency to lurch out of control and impale himself unintentionally. Nigel was original- ly more classical in his approach, but is no longer averse, as he has been in the past, to the occasional rough-and-tumble. He has superb nerves for such occasions. If Nigel wins, a glittering prize awaits him, not only the accolade of being the first British player ever to contest the official world championship, but also a championship purse of several million dollars.
Here are three samples of their earlier battles. Timman-Short, London 1982
This was the first decisive game between Tim- man and Short. Timman was already one of the world's top grandmasters while Nigel was only 16 years old. White's position is clearly superior and Timman finished off with 1 Bd8 If now 1 . . . 0c8 White wins with 2 Bxe6 Qxe6 3 Qxc5. So 1 . . . Rxd8 2 Rxd8 h5 Again, 2. . Qxd8 fails on account of the looseness of the black rook on c5.
3 Re8 The threat is Bxe6 and 3. . hxg4 loses to 4 0h4+. 3. . . Bd5 4 Bxd5 Rc2 5 Qh4 exd5 6 Nf6 Black resigned.
Short-Timman, Amsterdam 1988
Strangely, both Short and Timman have evinced a predilection for the French Defence against each other when defending as Black. However, neither player has had much luck with it over their various encounters, the total score being 61/2-11/2 in White's favour. This position from Amsterdam 1988 was clearly a French and Short crashed through with the following combination: 1 Rxc4 dxc4 2 Bxf5 Qd8 A forlorn retreat, but if Black recaptures with 2. . . exf5 then 3 e6 fxe6 4 Qg6+ Kd8 5 Nxe6+ Bxe6 6 Bg5 + is terminal. 3 Qg7 Qe7 4 Ne4 exf5 5 Nd6+ Kd8 6 Bg5 f6 7 Nb7+ Black resigned.
Short-Timman, Tilburg 1991
The mos spectacular finale of any game be- tween Short and Timman occurred when Nigel won with a dramatic king march. 1 Kh2 Rc8 2 Kg3 Rce8 3 Kf4 Bc8 4 Kg5 Black resigns He has no defence to 5 Kh6. If 5 . . . Kh7 6 Qxg6 + Kh8 7 Qh6+ Kg8 and now the changing of the guard with 8 Kf6 forces checkmate.
The match regulations stipulate 14 games played at the rate of five per week.
If there is no clear winner at that stage there will be two days of tie-breaks with accelerated time limits on 3 and 4 Febru- ary.
, I shall, of course, be following this important match blow by blow in The Spectator.
Readers may like to know that on 3 January BBC2 will feature a television preview of the match. Tim Rice and Dominic Lawson will be commenting on Nigel's prospects.
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