Nigel Short may have more than a little very well-aged beef with Gata Kamsky, but it's not on the crosstable of the Montreal International. After four rounds of this category 16 (2650) ten-player all-play-all, Kamsky is one of the trio of leaders with 3/4, along with Eljanov and Ivanchuk. Meanwhile, Short is doing his best to make Pascal Charbonneau look like Genghis Khan. My fellow Brooklynite, still playing for Canada, has a half point so far, but he's being kept out of the cellar by Short, who has lost all four games. In other words, Short has the same score as Canadian chess legend Abe Yanofsky, and Yanofsky's dead. By the way, we need a term for losing four in a row. "Castling long" for three straight losses is pretty good. I'm sure we can do better than "castling really long." Baseball has the "golden sombrero" for striking out four times in one game, upgrading the universal "hat trick" for things that come in threes.
Thanks to the pounding received by Sutovsky, Charbonneau, and Short so far, we've had 65% decisive games. Those three players are the only ones with negative scores. Sutovsky has yet to play a draw. Canadian teen hope Mark Bluvshtein is having a great event despite being outrated by a few hundred points by some of the players. He's on +1 after winning the all-Canada battle with Charbonneau and drawing with several of the leaders. Sergei Tiviakov has been unusually frisky. Actually, it's nice to see some of these guys out from under the brutal pressure of the top ten at events like Corus. Kamsky, for example, is showing how devastatingly strong he is when he's not facing guys like Gelfand every day. He's won both his whites in powerful maneuvering games with touches of tactics that remind me of vintage Kamsky. Today's Ivanchuk-Kamsky battle should be a good one. Short tries to avoid having us come up with a term for losing five in a row against Sutovsky.
I guess he'll be hoping today's game will be Short...
Oh my aching sides.
OK, this is stretching it. How about "Gettysberged?" Four (no)score and...
the tension on short's forhead can be observed from across the room. i have been there every day to capture the start of the rounds, and all that short has got going for him is that he is the best dressed.
Korchnoi has pulled this stunt THREE times, would you believe!?
(1) USSR Championship 1955, Rounds 15-18 (Geller, Kotov, Botvinnik, Spassky).
(2) Curacao Candidates 1962, Rounds 14-17 (Tal, Geller, Petrosian, Keres).
(3) Candidates Final match 1977/8 vs Spassky, Games 11-14.
There could possibly be other instances. I haven't checked events since 1983.
Short's got a tooooth problem. He had to go to the dentist.
I guess we could have castled short, castled long and then castled Short again but note the capital "S" symbolizing the player!
I guess he could have castled short with both colors!?
We had the same problem with Chouchan Airapetian in the US Women's Championship and we realized we might have struggled for a name for 9 losses in a row. Thankfully she scored a draw in round 8.
You'd think Mr Charbonneau could play for Canada a long while, being Canadian and all..
How about Four-Majeure?
But if Short loses today it calls for an eponym, something like a Short Fuse, Short Straw, Fin de Short, etc.
How about "four-flushed"?
Yeah! Four-flush is also an early 20th century insult denoting a cheap prick who weasels out of bills.
Provided you count the number of squares that the King jumps rather than the Rook...
Can you have Shoooort castling in FischerRandom!?
I think you can even have Shooooort castling.
But it doesn't seem that you can have Larsen/Taimanov castling. (You'd think you could have in FischerRandom!)
Tim Krabbé fans will know that 0-0-0-0 is Pam-Krabbé castling, castling with a King on e1 and a promoted rook on e8:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pam-Krabb%C3%A9-Rochade
In German only, sadly.
I refer to 0-0-0-0 as "got an Audi" and 0-0-0-0-0 as an Olympic performance. 0-0-0-0-0-0 is usually accompanied by "withdrawn" on the wall chart!
I refer to 0-0-0-0 as "got an Audi" and 0-0-0-0-0 as an Olympic performance. 0-0-0-0-0-0 is usually accompanied by "withdrawn" on the wall chart!
FourShortened?
Or having a fourshortened perspective?
:-)
tjallen
They've got him by the Short and curlies.
They're rubbing him down with Shortening and having their way with him.
I have a bad feeling that even a terrific battle between Chucky and Gata won't be enough to Shorten the domination of this thread by puns on Nigel's last name.
Well, Short and four in a row, it could be a
LongShort
I gather Short is having dental problems with a Wisdom tooth - getting one fitted in!
All these silly puns aside, this tournament looks to be too long for short.
"S"
"I refer to 0-0-0-0 as "got an Audi" and 0-0-0-0-0 as an Olympic performance. 0-0-0-0-0-0 is usually accompanied by "withdrawn" on the wall chart!"
I think we've got two winners here. DR is a commentariat genius.
It's not the first time Short has blundered games away. Couple this whith his touth ache - ChessBase mentions "during one of his games [he] had to be escorted to his hotel room to take pain medication" - and this is what you get.
You can laugh at his misfortune, at least he kept playing.
(Personally, imo, "chess players" who laugh at other player's blunders are usually clueless patzers.)
Certainly...
Apart from his winning some minor tournaments against players well below his standard, he has been blundering a lot in the past several years. I believe he went on a rook-hanging binge a few years back.
Must be something wrong. When he hung the rooks, he said it was the fast time control that did it.
Is he finished? He'd better get it together or the upcoming China-England match will be a rout.
blunder,
It takes a big man to stand up for a man who makes a living moving plastic men around a checkered board and has to be helped around because his tooth hurts. The way I see it, public response to "celebrities" often reflects how they have acted toward the public. And let's face it: Short is not a tactfully bloke. Listen to his interviews or how he acts on playchess.com. If you act like a baby, be prepared to be treated like one.
in stendecese, tactfully=tactful.
I was under the impression Short had to be escorted to his hotel room because games were still in session and he (and arbiters) wanted to be ensure there would be no accusations of cheating if he went to his hotel room unescorted. I don't think it was just because his tooth hurt. ?
I like to think that few people have less time for Short than I do, and even I think this thread's a bit pathetic. credit the guy for keeping playing, why don't you?
As to the rook-hanging binge, I believe NS's rating reached a career high about two years ago when he crossed 2700 for the first time.
Even a mighty and heroic man like Stendec can be brought down "because his tooth hurts".
I don't have teeth.
It's not China - England, it's China - UK.
Anyway, I think it's safe bet the Chinese will win comfortably. They are higher rated on nearly every board (although it is an all play all sheveningen) and are a lot younger. Also, given their results in other team competitions... things don't look good for the UK team.
Short managed a draw yesterday but is struggling to hold against Pascal
To all mocking Short: I wonder if any of you ever got toothache? It hurts and would distract you from thinking.
Short managed a draw yesterday but is struggling to hold against Pascal
To all mocking Short: I wonder if any of you ever got toothache? It hurts and would distract you from thinking.
oops how do I delete a double post?
Fired,
Get it right, it's the overrated biased towards Western players vs the incredibly strong who regularly beat 27000-level players, but are considered unproven just like every other non-Western player Chinese.
To suggest that they might win because they have stronger rated players on every board or that Chinese tend to care a lot more about these types of competition is a grave insult which shows your bias.
*yes, that was sarcasm*
Ong non,
I've never had a toothache because I don't have teeth. But if I did, I'd probably brush them to avoid the pain. Just because Short has a toothache does not mean that I have to like him as a person. It has nothing to do with the UK, with his performance so far, or his bloody tooth: the guy is rude and petty, and I'm childish enough to get a little bit of satisfaction from his situation. If this were happening to someone nice, like Anand or Gelfand, I would probably be in your shoes--feeling bad for him.
I don't think there's any need to defend him against puns on his last name. He's obviously a great player, and at the same time he has his human foibles and Shortcomings. I don't think we are Shortchanging him in any way.
All these people with fake names, and probably no good OTB experience make me sick. Just pathetic. Fake wannabes.
Short's having a bad tournament so far. He has a tooth problem. One of the factor's that he isn't performing well is because he's putting too much energy into promoting chess. You know, making it more popular, more accessable. Something very few GMs can be bothered to do.
He should be given more praise for that, and more GMs should do it.
All these people with fake names, and probably no good OTB experience make me sick. Just pathetic. Fake wannabes.
Short's having a bad tournament so far. He has a tooth problem. One of the factor's that he isn't performing well is because he's putting too much energy into promoting chess. You know, making it more popular, more accessable. Something very few GMs can be bothered to do.
He should be given more praise for that, and more GMs should do it.
All these people with fake names, and probably no good OTB experience make me sick. Just pathetic. Fake wannabes.
Short's having a bad tournament so far. He has a tooth problem. One of the factor's that he isn't performing well is because he's putting too much energy into promoting chess. You know, making it more popular, more accessable. Something very few GMs can be bothered to do.
He should be given more praise for that, and more GMs should do it.
All these people with fake names, and probably no good OTB experience make me sick. Just pathetic. Fake wannabes.
Short's having a bad tournament so far. He has a tooth problem. One of the factor's that he isn't performing well is because he's putting too much energy into promoting chess. You know, making it more popular, more accessable. Something very few GMs can be bothered to do.
He should be given more praise for that, and more GMs should do it.
Mark,
In the future you may want to try and short-en the amount of repeated reactionary posts you leave in support of a GM who hasn't been that popular since helping to screw things up in 93. His arrogant disposition aside.
As opposed to genuine wannabes, Mark?
I had no idea those with OTB experience must swear an oath against a sense of fun and taking as well as giving jokes, or at least I didn't get the memo.
Freedom has a price, shorty. Didn't you already know that? And you know what they say: if you can't laugh at yourself, then you can always laugh at your mother. Actually, I believe Nigel may have said that.
Mark Howitt wrote: "All these people with fake names, and probably no good OTB experience make me sick. Just pathetic. Fake wannabes."
fide.com, Ratings...All players, lookup screen wrote, in response to "Howitt":
"Search Results ( 0 found)"
lmao@ Jon Jacobs. Jon, sometimes you have the perfect response.
Can someone update us on what hoopla is happening with Short-Kamsky, the game should have started by now
Can someone update us on what hoopla is happening with Short-Kamsky, the game should have started by now
See good OTB @
http://members.aon.at/sfischl/standings.html
Mig,
How about "Moreauing", after Colonel Moreau, who lost all his games in Monte Carlo, 1903? It could be used like this:
"While Kamsky busily mowed down his opponents, Short Moreaued up his foes."
Yours, Ed Y.
I think it's not nice to speculate about Nigel's unfortunate play, he'll definitely do better in his next event. As for the dental problem I suddenly remembered having one precisely with the wisdom tooth right before the rapid tournament Tallinn 2006, remember my result there?
Four straight losses is truly an "Apocalypse"