New time control a disaster: Short

By Our Chess Correspondent

MERIDA (MEXICO), MAY 21. Former World chess championship challenger Nigel Short of England thinks that FIDE's new time control will be a disaster and a very bad idea.

Speaking to the press after finishing his four clock simultaneous games on Saturday, Short said the new control would hurt the quality of play in classical chess and disturb the speed, which rapid games provide.

Asked if he could make a suggestion to merge the split chess world, Short said as one of those responsible for the split, may be he could say something about that. ``The fact that there is a split is very unfortunate. FIDE made some mistakes in the past. Due to that we have a situation now with some difficulties. There must be some sort of reunification match. This is much easier now that Gary Kasparov is no longer world champion. The possibilities are there. If the people concerned can make some agreement on this it will be very good for the chess world.''

About his game with Anand in round three, Short said, ``Anand won easily. But he is not in good form here. The first game, okay, he wasn't able to do anything. The second game against Hernandez he played like a drunk machine gun, just attacking like crazy. It was completely reckless what he did. Yesterday I really played very badly. And he made it extremely difficult for himself. Ordinarily would he just kill me. Maybe he was also sleeping a little bit because he came to the tournament very late. Also there is a seven hour time difference between here and Madrid.''

Asked who was the best chess player in the world, Short said, ``hard to say, Kasparov is the best except when he is playing against Vladimir Kramnik.''

Short said the highlight of his career was the victory over Anatoly Karpov at Linares from where he went on to become the challenger to the world championship. ``I have also won many tournaments, some of them more important than others, but if I have to say one individual thing, I would say beating Karpov in the Candidates match.''

About his prospects, Short said he doesn't have much left to his career and is a mature player. He confessed, ``I am also extremely lazy at this time in my career. There were times when I worked very hard. Now I have other priorities and I just want to play some good games. Actually I played a good game against Khalifman here. For me it is okay if I can occasionally win a tournament.''

The Mexican press asked him a shock question, ``what do you do for a living.'' Short replied, ``I am a farmer, I grow olives in Greece.''

The tournament committee asked him for advice for improvement to which Short replied, ``the tournament is excellent. Yesterday, there was noise, some music. It was not a big disturbance but a little one. It is very well organised. If you ask a question like this one, I can always find small things. For example, yesterday after my long game with Anand, why did the restaurant in our hotel close so early?''

Short was asked if it was true that during his world title match against Kasparov in 1993, Princess Diana visited him and gave some support. ``Actually she came to visit me in my hotel room before one of the games. The strange thing was she came early and I was completely naked. It is absolutely true.'' Short said her sons play chess but very badly.

About preparation, Short said there is a difference between looking at chess and studying chess. ``I look at chess. When you want to study chess you must organise it and do in a constructive way. I tend to work nowadays only at tournaments. Against Kasparov in 1993 I studied for many months for eight hours a day. It still didn't help you know.''

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