Latestchess.com recently did an interview with Grandmaster Nigel Short. Here it is.
Grandmaster Nigel Short is widely regarded as one of the strongest British chess players. He became a Grandmaster at age 19, the youngest in the world at that time. In 1979. He challenged for the World Championship against Garry Kasparov at London 1993. Along with his playing activities, Short is a noted chess writer. He has written columns and book reviews for many British newspapers. He has coached young prodigies like Pentala Harikrishna, Sergey Karjakin, David Howell and Parimarjan Negi. His first team assignment, with the Islamic Republic of Iran, led to them unexpectedly taking bronze medal at the Asian Games.
In this interview with Nigel Short, he tells us about his plans of chess promotion, his writing career, state of chess in England, interest in cricket, roles of chess players body’s like ACP or CPAI, views on FIDE. He also shares his chess coaching experience, playing experiences with Kasparov and Karpov, famous game with Timman.
We hope our readers would enjoy reading the interview with interesting snaps of Grandmaster Nigel Short.
LatestChess:- Hello Nigel, We are glad to have you on LatestChess, you have undoubtedly an important role to play in promoting chess as an icon for a younger generation in England and all over the world. What role do you see yourself playing in the future?Nigel Short:- First and foremost I consider myself to be a chess player. However the economic situation was so dire as recently as 2005 that I only played one tournament (Corus), despite the fact I had contacted numerous organisers pleading (unsuccessfully) for invitations. For reasons I do not fully understand, I now very much in demand and have a very full schedule of events up until Spring 2008.
First and foremost I consider myself to be a chess player…
My writing career, which was flourishing at one time, is now more or less on hold. I don’t suppose it will stay this way forever. I was so disgusted last year at being sacked by the Guardian, in what can only be described as an act of shameless nepotism, that I have not yet bothered to look for another job.
I can see myself steadily doing more chess coaching over the coming years…
As to chess politics: it is well known that I supported the Right Move campaign of Bessel Kok in the last FIDE Presidential election. I have come to the conclusion that FIDE is unreformable in its current state and that corruption and incompetence are deeply entrenched. Due to the manner with which this election was won, with cash-stuffed envelopes being handed out to the more flexible delegates, I cannot see myself wishing to get involved again in such an ugly process for many years to come. I will confine myself to rather more modest attempts to promote chess throughout the Commonwealth.
Here is the full interview.
Why is he coaching the Iranian? Has he no soul?
Susan, you should have mentioned in the preface that Nigel excels in introducing words in his commentaries that virtually nobody has heard before. That alone makes his chess coverage unique.
The fact the he doesn’t discriminate proves that he has a great soul.
Where does your disapprovement come from? Does it come from your heart or does it come from the news that you’re watching? You better don’t believe every word that the American Government tells you….
anonymous@9:13 –
Iranians are people too. Chess is a game to be enjoyed by all, and should not be divided by religious or political beliefs.
Separation of Church and Chess!
🙂
To anon 9:13:00 AM.
What on Earth is wrong with teaching chess to Iranians?
It seems Nigel has a very pessimistic view of the FIDE organization and its future. It is sad to see even our top players losing faith in our world chess organization.
One key to all spirituality is to love your enemies. Very few practice this. Nice to see Nigel. I always liked Nigel and so enjoy his vocabulary.
It would have been nice if Kamsky could have used Nigel as a second at the Candidates matches.
I am now thinking that if God made everyone and God loves everyone. Then to claim that some people do not deserve to be loved is to say that God made a mistake and that God is not God. In which case I guess we are claiming to be smarter than God. hahaha. pretty funny. So I guess we are stuck loving everyone including our enemy who is now no longer our enemy and never was our enemy.
He should teach chess in the White House. Then they may not have time and inclination for real wars.