Is he the most tortured chess player ever?

[Javier]

I was taking a look at the game Nigel Short lost against Luke Mcshane in the first Round of the "London Chess Classic". It was a pretty long game, 163 moves... (see below) and then I remembered another game which lasted just one move less, 162 moves, and which Nigel also lost against GM Valery Salov (a player who gave up chess for very unclear reasons).

Anyway, I then decided to check my database to find some of Short's longest games. What I found is rather shocking:

Nigel has only scored 2.5 (that's a little over 20%) in the 12 longest games that he has ever played!

 

And I'm now wondering whether some players are trying to exploit the fact that Short doesn't seem to score too well when he plays very long games. I mean, we're talking about big competitions here, any strategy is valid if it achieves its aim...

There's one other game which would seem to support this theory: Short also lost a very long game against Krasenkov when he blunderd a whole Rook in an endgame where he was the exchange up.

Shereshevsky's classic book, "Endgame strategy", supports the controversial idea that when you're playing a slightly better ending, the torture of repeating moves is an excellent strategy to make your defending opponent feel worse in a position where his only hope is a draw. That's got another name, "playing with his mind".

 

I'm feeling pity for Short!

 

GM Nigel Short.

 

[Event "Chess Classic"]

[site "London ENG"]

[Date "2009.12.08"]

[Round "1"]

[White "McShane, L."]

[black "Short, N."]

[Result "1-0"]

[ECO "C45"]

[WhiteElo "2615"]

[blackElo "2707"]

 

 

[Event "Linares 8th"]

[site "Linares"]

[Date "1990.??.??"]

[Round "3"]

[White "Short, Nigel D"]

[black "Salov, Valery"]

[Result "0-1"]

[ECO "C54"]

[WhiteElo "2635"]

[blackElo "2645"]

[PlyCount "324"]

 

 

 

 

[Event "FIDE-Wch k.o."]

[site "Tripoli"]

[Date "2004.06.21"]

[Round "2.1"]

[White "Short, Nigel D"]

[black "Krasenkow, Michal"]

[Result "0-1"]

[ECO "B33"]

[WhiteElo "2712"]

[blackElo "2609"]

[PlyCount "244"]

[EventDate "2004.06.19"]