What happened to Nigel?
The Montreal International Chess Tournament 2007 will be remembered not for Ivanchuk’s convincing victory but for the negative score by Nigel Short. Minus six by a super-grandmaster, a 2430 performance, all of this ripe for a Guinness Book entry. We are tempted to say that this was the biggest breakdown we can recall in modern times – but there is of course Alexei Shirov’s 0.5/9 at the Keres Memorial Rapid chess tournament in Tallinn 2006.
Still it was an extraordinary turn of events for the former world championship challenger Nigel Short. We decided to track him down and press him for an explanation, even if that is not the most sensitive thing to do. We have known him and been friends since he was 15, so it was done with his best interests at heart. And in the hope that a nice long talk about his problems might provide a therapeutic solution to them.
Telephone interview with Nigel Short (after round seven)
Frederic Friedel: Nigel, good to have reached you in the Doubletree Hilton Hotel. Tell me, what is going on?
Nigel Short: You mean my results?
Frederic: Yes, of course, minus five. You going for a record or something?
Nigel: (laughs) No, no, although it may look like it. I really have no clue what’s going on. I am completely mystified.
Come on, there must be a reason.Your dental problems?
That explains the first two rounds. I was simply drugged out of my skull. I was in so much pain from my teeth. But that was only during the first two rounds.
What exactly happened?
Well, I need some root canal treatment, and in fact I knew that before I came to Canada. I went to see the dentist the day before I left, but the treatment requires about four visits. She gave me some medication and when I went to Ottawa the toothache had magically disappeared. I thought optimistically that maybe things were fine. But I started to get discomfort just before coming to Montreal. By the second day it was really excruciating. That was when I lost like a complete idiot to Harikrishna. Then we had a free day and I went for treatment. They have very good dentists and very good equipment here. I was quite amazed at the computer graphics of my teeth. What they did was to open up the tooth and remove the infection, and then sort of stuck me back together. But the guy said in the end: you are going to have to get that fixed when you get back home. So I have a temporary fix and I’m okay.
What about the third round? Were you in pain? Were you still drugged?
No, not at all.
Here is the full interview.
OK Nigel, we believe you.
I like Mr. Short but he’s wrong about Kamsky.
I found this line interesting:
“So I was supposed to compete on wage terms with a Cuban”
Well, yes. Or did you expect to get a bonus because you are not Cuban and chose to live in a more expensive place?
Nigel must be on a quest to obtain the title of “Definitive Whinging Pom”.
If you read the entire interview, you’ll see it’s one excuse and one complaint after the other. What a cry-baby.
You can’t complain about money when you finish last at a tournament.
Also, either you accept the terms and go to the tournament or either you refuse and don’t go. You cannot accept and then complain about it.
I never saw in my life such a long list of problems.
To bad he did not add that his cat was sick at the time. Realy.
Looks like he is not very strong mentally.
Looking at the whole interview it looks as if he isn’t really making excuses but trying to give something to the interviewer who keeps asking the same question of ‘why’. If he was trying to come up with excuses he’d just say the pain of his teeth was too bad.
To the anon who wrote the following :
“Looks like he is not very strong mentally.”
Just try to play him a chess game, or face him on any intellectual subject, you may have understand what jerk you are compared to him.
Funny part is you might not even understand :-))
I really don’t see what there is to criticise about Nigel Short in this interview.
He is asked many times why his results were so bad in this tournament, and admitted that he had no excuses after his dental treatment.
As far as appearance money is concerned, he is a professional player who depends on such income to support his family. Would anyone here question the money Susan earns for her efforts? Or would it be better to import a “cheaper” GM?
Nigels frank attempt to explain how he was feeling during the tournament were in my opinion, refreshingly honest and patient.
I find it astonishing that people should accuse him of winging when that patently wasn’t what he was doing.
Nigel shoots from the hip here, lets see how you feel after some russian thug corners you and threatens your life.