LitNetIsGreat
12-23-2012, 09:18 PM
(Published as Endgame in the US)
“A wonderful achievement…so tense, so gripping and so readable” Stephen Fry.
Back in 1993 I remember being totally hooked by the televised Times World Chess Championship in London, between British no. 1, and best ever British player, Nigel Short, and Garry Kasparov, undisputed world champion. This put chess on the map in the UK, at least for a little while. Nothing in comparison as to how Fischer had electrified chess in the US, 21 years earlier of course, in his victory against Spassky and Russian chess dominance, but still, it had kids playing chess in schools for a while and I was one of them. I had played chess before thanks to my dad teaching me at about 7 or 8, but this competition had kids brings mini-chess boards into school and playing at lunch across the country.
Nigel Short for the match had absolutely no chance of winning. He was the typical British sporting underdog where phrases such as ‘plucky’ and ‘nice chap’ might be muttered by the commentary or press at the time but the sheer reality of the situation was that he couldn’t possibly win. He’d not beaten Kasparov in a standard time chess match for something like eight years previous to this and odds were so short that, in the 20 match final, bookies stopped taking bets on Kasparov after just the first couple of games.
Short was good. He was a child prodigy and top level Grand Master who had earned the right to take on Kasparov having qualified ahead of the competition including beating the legendary Karpov early on in his candidate games. But this was Garry Kasparov, the Russian chess genius, considered by many to be the greatest ever player, playing at his absolute prime of life with all the advantages of top level Russian state chess sponsorship.
Because of this perhaps, the game seems to have been remembered as a completely one-sided affair and Short as nothing more than a second class chess citizen. If you follow such chess talk (the chances are you don’t!) you might be forgiven for thinking the game went something like 18-2 in favour of Kasparov. In actual fact, the final score of 12½ to 7½ (one point for a victory ½ point for a draw) Short actually over-performed according to rating and if you believe the admittedly bias Lawson here, came a lot closer in some of the drawn games than was given credit for at the time.
Lawson writes in the preface:
I can only say that I have told it as I saw it happen. I might also be accused of a bias in favour of Nigel Short and against Garri (alt spelling?) Kasparov. To this I plead guilty. First, Nigel is a good friend, and good friends deserve support. Second, I had long dreamt that one day Britain would produce a great chess player with not just had skill, but also the will to wrest the world championship form the Russians. Nigel Short had the same wild dream, and it was the most extraordinary experience of my life.
From my point of view this enthusiasm and excitement is apparent throughout the book. It’s brilliant. Personally this has been the best non-fiction book I have read all year easily. It is well written yes and the tense, massive psychological struggle comes across clearly in this book, but it is a little difficult to detach my own connections to this match and obsession with chess to guess whether the non-chess enthusiast will like this book as much as I did. I suspect that they will, because there is enough of the human struggle here to satisfy – it is, after all, the tense, behind the scenes insight, which I found fascinating, that would surely appeal to many people regardless of their understanding or interest in chess, but of course I can’t say for sure. Overall though it is certainly recommended.
The book starts out at the candidate games, then details the political break from FIDE - the world chess governing body - which Kasparov and Short orchestrated between themselves over disagreements with FIDE (of which Short received much criticism and ostracism from foes and friends alike) and then of course insights behind the actual match itself. A great book. 5 sausages out of 5.
Game stats:
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=55309
“A wonderful achievement…so tense, so gripping and so readable” Stephen Fry.
Back in 1993 I remember being totally hooked by the televised Times World Chess Championship in London, between British no. 1, and best ever British player, Nigel Short, and Garry Kasparov, undisputed world champion. This put chess on the map in the UK, at least for a little while. Nothing in comparison as to how Fischer had electrified chess in the US, 21 years earlier of course, in his victory against Spassky and Russian chess dominance, but still, it had kids playing chess in schools for a while and I was one of them. I had played chess before thanks to my dad teaching me at about 7 or 8, but this competition had kids brings mini-chess boards into school and playing at lunch across the country.
Nigel Short for the match had absolutely no chance of winning. He was the typical British sporting underdog where phrases such as ‘plucky’ and ‘nice chap’ might be muttered by the commentary or press at the time but the sheer reality of the situation was that he couldn’t possibly win. He’d not beaten Kasparov in a standard time chess match for something like eight years previous to this and odds were so short that, in the 20 match final, bookies stopped taking bets on Kasparov after just the first couple of games.
Short was good. He was a child prodigy and top level Grand Master who had earned the right to take on Kasparov having qualified ahead of the competition including beating the legendary Karpov early on in his candidate games. But this was Garry Kasparov, the Russian chess genius, considered by many to be the greatest ever player, playing at his absolute prime of life with all the advantages of top level Russian state chess sponsorship.
Because of this perhaps, the game seems to have been remembered as a completely one-sided affair and Short as nothing more than a second class chess citizen. If you follow such chess talk (the chances are you don’t!) you might be forgiven for thinking the game went something like 18-2 in favour of Kasparov. In actual fact, the final score of 12½ to 7½ (one point for a victory ½ point for a draw) Short actually over-performed according to rating and if you believe the admittedly bias Lawson here, came a lot closer in some of the drawn games than was given credit for at the time.
Lawson writes in the preface:
I can only say that I have told it as I saw it happen. I might also be accused of a bias in favour of Nigel Short and against Garri (alt spelling?) Kasparov. To this I plead guilty. First, Nigel is a good friend, and good friends deserve support. Second, I had long dreamt that one day Britain would produce a great chess player with not just had skill, but also the will to wrest the world championship form the Russians. Nigel Short had the same wild dream, and it was the most extraordinary experience of my life.
From my point of view this enthusiasm and excitement is apparent throughout the book. It’s brilliant. Personally this has been the best non-fiction book I have read all year easily. It is well written yes and the tense, massive psychological struggle comes across clearly in this book, but it is a little difficult to detach my own connections to this match and obsession with chess to guess whether the non-chess enthusiast will like this book as much as I did. I suspect that they will, because there is enough of the human struggle here to satisfy – it is, after all, the tense, behind the scenes insight, which I found fascinating, that would surely appeal to many people regardless of their understanding or interest in chess, but of course I can’t say for sure. Overall though it is certainly recommended.
The book starts out at the candidate games, then details the political break from FIDE - the world chess governing body - which Kasparov and Short orchestrated between themselves over disagreements with FIDE (of which Short received much criticism and ostracism from foes and friends alike) and then of course insights behind the actual match itself. A great book. 5 sausages out of 5.
Game stats:
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=55309