Nigel Short’s Commuting to Canada

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  • Nigel Short’s Commuting to Canada

    Ever since Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, during the Championship Final of the World Cup, mentioned that Nigel Short had begun a column in New in Chess and the first was about Canada, I have been waiting on tenterhooks to read what he had to say.

    For Nigel seems to stir up strong passions in his readers. He can be blunt, inappropriate and also vastly amusing.

    He begins his article (in NIC 2013 #6) by talking about jet lag and chess performance. Then:

    Edmonton, in the oil-rich province of Alberta, lies a whopping nine time zones away from my home in Athens. Last year, when I won the 10-player round-robin there, I took the wise precaution of visiting both Ottawa and Toronto beforehand, giving simuls and lectures.

    He gives an account of the Edmonton tourney, says he flew home for about a week after, and then returned to Ottawa. He has kind words for his host, Gordon Ritchie, but is critical of the lack of Internet transmission of the games on the top boards and a last-minute change in pairings.

    He mentions draws with Eric Hansen and Ivan Sokolov and winning games against Leonid Gerzhoy and Elshan Moradiabadi and the final game against Lazaro Brouzon, the top seed.

    The last paragraph deals with the awards ceremony and I will not spoil Nigel’s story by quoting it here. I mean, what could go wrong at an awards ceremony? Am I right? The two-page article is worth a read to see how others see us.

    The main focus of the issue is on Che Guevara – A Revolutionary’s Passion for Chess. There are also Adams, Giri and Vachier-Lagrave and columnists, Jan Timman on the Politiken Cup and Hans Ree on The King’s Gambit.
    Last edited by Wayne Komer; Thursday, 12th September, 2013, 04:35 PM. Reason: added material

  • #2
    Re: Nigel Short’s Commuting to Canada

    New in Chess (NIC) is awesome! It is the only chess magazine that we offer to our customers...although we are many issues behind because we purchase through the U.S. distributor :(.

    So when then CFC President Michael Von Keitz approached me to work out a deal with (NIC) to have this magazine...with a CFC insert, become the official hard copy CFC magazine...I was really excited! I started working on the project...I spent time...the folks at New in Chess (NIC) spent time...to make this deal work...and then I received an e-mail from Michael...the CFC has nixed the project :(. Both NIC and myself will want guarantees in the future before we spend time on something like this. It would have been win-win-win...but alas...

    Larry

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    • #3
      Re: Nigel Short’s Commuting to Canada

      Originally posted by Larry Bevand View Post
      So when then CFC President Michael Von Keitz approached me to work out a deal with (NIC) to have this magazine...with a CFC insert, become the official hard copy CFC magazine...
      I think he could have asked only for a proposal but not a deal.

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      • #4
        Re : Re: Nigel Short’s Commuting to Canada

        I'm sure it was a great deal for NIC. But definitely not for the CFC. Only to get half of the annual NIC magazines, the CFC membership would have needed to be raised to nearly $80/year. It would have been a great way to lose hundreds of members.

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        • #5
          Re: Re : Re: Nigel Short’s Commuting to Canada

          Nigel Short has a column in The British Chess Magazine and, in the September issue, he annotates his game against Artem Samsonkin from the Canadian Open 2013.

          It starts as a Nimzowitsch Defence transposing to a Ruy Lopez, Cozio.

          Short’s annotation to the first moves:

          1 e4 Nc6
          The Nimzowitsch Defence, which develops a piece logically in contrast to the passive Caro-Kann, is a relatively rare bird at GM level. The main reason I adopted it, however, is that I had been trying to show my son, Nicholas, who accompanied me to Ottawa for his first ever tournament, a quick defence to 1. e4 on the flight over.

          A nice two-page spread in the centre of the magazine.

          How did Nicholas Short do in his first tournament?
          Last edited by Wayne Komer; Wednesday, 25th September, 2013, 01:12 PM. Reason: question added at end

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          • #6
            Re: Re : Re: Nigel Short’s Commuting to Canada

            Originally posted by Wayne Komer View Post
            How did Nicholas Short do in his first tournament?
            As his proud father points out in his article, Nicholas does many things. Chess was not among them until he accompanied his dad to the Canadian Open in Ottawa. Despite never having played competitive chess, Nicholas toughed it out playing every round. He naturally lost all his games but had a great time.

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            • #7
              Re: Re : Re: Nigel Short’s Commuting to Canada

              I thought it was pretty gutsy of Nicholas to play! He seemed like a very nice guy.

              Bob

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              • #8
                Re: Nigel Short’s Commuting to Canada

                Nicholas was a delightful guest both at our home in Ottawa and our cottages in New Brunswick. During his stay at least he was hooked on chess and despite taking a thumping from his much more experienced opponents he enjoyed it all thoroughly.

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