Nigel Short wins Commonwealth Championship

Nigel All The Way!!

By Praful Zaveri

The LIC/ONGC/MTNL sponsored Commonwealth Chess Championship 2006, which was held at the Eskay Resorts, Borivali, Mumbai from the 20th to the 29th of November 2006, will mainly be remembered for the incredible effort of just one person on all the fronts. Yes, I am referring to the heroics of Super Grandmaster Nigel Short of England during his 15-days sojourn in India for this event.

Prior to the start of the event he had conducted an extensive week-long session for his trainee, the prodigious GM Parimarjan Negi. Thereafter he fulfilled his duties as the President of the Commonwealth Chess Association to the core, by taking active interest to ensure the smooth conduct of the event and also to ensure maximum participation from the member countries. For the press and media, his outrageous remarks, his wonderful sense of humor and, last but not least, his deep insight into chess made him most sought after celebrity. The sports pages in Mumbai and India in particular, which thrives on cricket and nothing else, had extensive coverage of his exploits, both on and off the board! (excerpts are given below).

When it came to the tournament proper, he simply switched on his more comfortable role as a competitor and played uncompromising chess to defend his title with an incredible 9/10 in a strong field of 170 players, consisting of 12 GMs, 8 WGMs and more than 25 IMs/IWMs. Nigel pocketed the first prize of US $2,500 from the total prize fund of US $14,000.

Champagne time!

His uncompromising chess can be ascertained from the fact that of his ten games, only two games failed to produce results. He had to settle for two fighting draws against IM M.R.Venkatesh and GM Sandipan Chanda, which lasted 51 and 33 moves respectively. Agreed that the huge rating difference between him and the rest of the field necessitated this result on his part. However; whatever be the level, it is very difficult to maintain the same tempo. We shall have a look at two of his efforts, including the Evans Gambit against Abhijeet Gupta.

Short,Nigel (2677) - Gupta,Abhijeet (2481) [C52]
Commonwealth Chess Championship (5.1), 24.11.2006
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 exd4 7.Qb3 Qf6 8.0-0 b5 9.Bxb5 Nge7 10.Bg5 Qg6 11.Bxe7 Nxe7 12.cxd4 0-0 13.Na3 Rb8 14.Qa4 Bc3 15.Rac1 Bb2 16.Rxc7 Qd6 17.Rxc8 Nxc8 18.Nc4 Qc7 19.Nxb2 Nd6 20.Bxd7 Rxb2 21.Bc6 Rfb8 22.a3 Rb1 23.g3 h6 24.e5 Nf5 25.Be4 Rxf1+ 26.Kxf1 Ne7 27.d5 Qc5 28.d6 Nd5 29.Qd4 Qb5+ 30.Kg2 Nb6 31.Ne1 Qa5 32.Nd3 Qxa3 33.Nc5 Rc8 34.d7 Nxd7 35.Nxd7 Qc3 36.Qxa7 Qd2 37.Qb7 Rd8 38.Bc6 Qc3 39.h4 h5 40.Be4 Qd2 41.Bd5 0-1

Chanda,Sandipan (2559) - Short,Nigel (2677) [E11]
Commonwealth Chess Championship (8.1), 27.11.2006
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Nbd2 d5 5.a3 Be7 6.e3 0-0 7.Bd3 c5 8.dxc5 a5 9.cxd5 Qxd5 10.Bc4 Qxc5 11.b4 Qc7 12.b5 Rd8 13.Bb2 a4 14.0-0 Nbd7 15.Rc1 Nc5 16.Qe2 b6 17.Ne5 Bb7 18.f4 Rf8 19.Ndf3 Nfe4 20.f5 Bd5 21.Nxf7 Rxf7 22.fxe6 Bxc4 23.Qxc4 Rxf3 24.Rxf3 Qd6 25.Rf7 Nf6 26.Bxf6 Bxf6 27.Rd7 Qxe6 28.Qxe6+ Nxe6 29.Rd6 Nc5 30.Rxb6 Bg5 31.Rc3 Re8 32.Rc6 Rxe3 33.Rxe3 ½-½.

• Click to replay the games

Apart from Nigel's Gold Medal in the men's section, the tournament was an All-India affair as the Indian players grabbed 40 of the 42 medals at stake. Melissa Greef of RSA prevented an Indian clean-sweep by claiming Silver in the Girl's Under-12.

Besides, Nigel, the only other player to remain undefeated in the tournament was the 3rd seeded Indian GM, Sandipan Chanda. He played solidly throughout to claim a deserving silver medal with a score of 8/10.

The brightest spot from the Indian players was the fantastic effort of IM M.R. Venkatesh, who fought Nigel Short for the lead for most of the tournament – until he found his nemesis, IM S.Vijayalakshmi. Apart from this setback, he was comfortable in all the games, including the one against Nigel, where he was better. Unfortunately, the GM norm eluded Venkatesh, as he could not meet the requisite number of foreign participants. This problem can be obviated by changing the format of the event so as to permit participation of only the selected players on the line of Chess Olympiad. This will also make a case of inclusion of Chess in the Commonwealth Games proper!

Bronze Medalist IM M.R. Venkatesh (right)

The Women's section was won by the reigning World U-18 champion, WGM Dronavali Harika with a score of 7/10. She pockets US $500. At one stage it appeared that IM S. Vijiyalakshmi was running with this title with 6.5/8 but could not garner any points from the last two rounds, losing to Nigel and Neelotpal Das. She had to be content with a silver medal. WGM Tania Sachdeva won Bronze medal.

The disappointment

The player who was expected to pose real challenge to the title defense of Nigel Short was the 2nd seeded Indian, GM S.S. Ganguly. Unfortunately, he just ran out of steam at the crucial time. His unexpected loss to the untitled Arghyadip Das at the half-way stage pushed him behind. He did recover some lost ground towards the end, but the last round defeat at the hands of Nigel put and end to his aspirations and he could just manage 7th place, a disappointment by the standards he has set. Detailed below is his demolition act against IM Rahul Shetty.

Ganguly,SS (2573) - Shetty,Rahul (2302) [C10]
Commonwealth Chess Championship (2.2), 21.11.2006
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.g3 Ngf6 6.Nxf6+ Nxf6 7.Bg2 c5 8.Nf3 cxd4 9.Qxd4 Qxd4 10.Nxd4 a6 11.0-0 Bd6 12.Rd1 Bc7 13.c4 0-0 14.Ne2 Rb8 15.Be3 Bd7 16.Ba7 Ra8 17.Bc5 Rfb8 18.Bd6 Bxd6 19.Rxd6 Kf8 20.Rad1 Ke7 21.b3 Ra7 22.Rb6 Kd8 23.Nc3 Kc7 24.Rbd6 Re8 25.b4 Re7 26.a4 Ra8 27.c5 Rf8 28.b5 axb5 29.axb5 Bc8 30.b6+ Kb8 31.Ra1 Nd7 32.Ne4 1-0.

Ganguly,SS (2677) - Short,Nigel (2573) [C68]
Commonwealth Chess Championship (10.1), 29.11.2006
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.0-0 Bd6 6.d4 exd4 7.Qxd4 f6 8.Be3 Ne7 9.Nbd2 Be6 10.Rfd1 Ng6 11.Nc4 Bxc4 12.Qxc4 Qe7 13.Re1 0-0-0 14.Rad1 Rhe8 15.Bc1 c5 16.b3 Qe6 17.Qxe6+ Rxe6 18.Rd2 b5 19.Kf1 Rde8 20.Rde2 Kb7 21.g3 h5 22.Nd2 Ne5 23.f4 Nc6 24.c3 b4 25.c4 Nd4 26.Rf2 g5 27.Bb2 h4 28.Bxd4 cxd4 29.Ke2 hxg3 30.hxg3 Rh8 31.Rg1 d3+ 32.Kxd3 Bc5 33.Rff1 Rd6+ 0-1.

• Click to replay the games

As far as the organization was concerned, Mr. Ravindra Dongre, Deputy President of the Commonwealth Chess Association and Vice-President of the All India Chess Federation did a great job to provide the maximum facilities to the players. The playing arena was simply fantastic and, with quality of players, it attracted good crowd every day. In all, the tournament can be termed a success on all fronts. It would be icing on the cake if and when the event enters the Guinness Book of World Records for being hosted for three consecutive times at Mumbai.

The tournament was sponsored by the three Public Sector giants in India: Oil & Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited. The prize distribution ceremony was presided over by Mr. T. Thomas Mathew, Managing Director of the Life Insurance Corporation of India.

Photo Impressions of the Tournament

Nigel Short with dignitaries on the dais

Lighting the traditional lamp to signal the commencement of the event

The chief guest, the Honorable Union Minister of State, Prime Minister's Office, Mr. Prithviraj Chavan, honoring the current World Under-8 Champion Girish Koushik

Minister Prithviraj Chavan plays a few moves against Nigel

A packed house enjoying the ceremony

Let the games begin – with Nigel Short as top seed

The Commonwealth champion with the organisation team

Final standings of the Commonwealth Open

Other categories

Excerpts from the Press Conference

Nigel Short speaking to the press and audience at the closing ceremony

On the Commonwealth Chess Association & the Championship:
It's a very loose body. I started my association last year. My predecessor, Mr.P.T. Ummer Koya ran this body as his personal fiefdom. He didn't communicate with any of the officer-bearers and never responded to any of the e-mails. So we have started from scratch and are recovering from a bad situation. If we look back at the history of the event, it is held infrequently. Previously it was incorporated with Lloyds Bank. Thereafter, few Commonwealth Championships have taken place in London, Australia, Malaysia. In the last decade or so India has been the prime organizer. It has got tremendous chess strength. Basically, chess and Commonwealth do not mix. Most Commonwealth nations are not good at chess. India and UK are exceptions. Just to help the game we need unique Commonwealth Championship. It was stupid to incorporate the event with International Open (1999) where players from Russia & Uzbekistan participated. I hope the  next edition in South Africa would bring in a change for better in terms of representation as players from countries like Botswana, Zambia, Kenya and Uganda can participate. This will help in developing Chess strength.

On his trainee, young sensation GM Parimarjan Negi:
I am very impressed with what I have seen. I have worked with him. He is very intelligent, hard working and one of the best chess players to emerge after Anand in India. We will see a lot more of him.

Anand & Parimarjan:
Anand is like a God! Cannot compare Anand to Parimarjan. He (Parimarjan) is supremely talented and has done great things at an early age but he has a long way to go. Things are tougher in chess world and computers have raised the standards to an unprecedented levels. The laptop is now a powerful learning tool for the chess players, which makes the difference. Parimarjan figures in top 300 players and that is a big achievement. Much more significant is that he is rising

On Chess Titles:
The GM title of today is not the GM title of twenty years ago. The requirement for norms has been reduced. Earlier, one got a GM norm from a 13-round tournament. Now you can get the same norm from a 9-round event. This is a political act by FIDE for their own gains as they have lowered the standards to create more Grandmasters. If at all they want more GMs, they should raise the level of players rather than lower the qualification. With this, FIDE has gone the other way round. The result is that lot of players have bought titles. I am not naming anyone but, I know what I am talking. FIDE does little to stop this practice. In fact, they encourage. The Federations are happy that they have produced titled players, the players are happy, the players who sold are happy. The titles are now available for as low as 30 Euro. This is nice little corrupt business. The solution is to abolish titles. The titles have no relevance. We should only have rankings as in Tennis. Just get rid of stupid titles.

Links

• Official website
• First ChessBase report on the Commonwealth Championship 2006
• Report on the Commonwealth Championship 2004
• Download selected games in PGN
  (the games are in a dreadful state, we will try to obtain a better set)
• E-mail the author: prafulzaveri at hotmail.com"