Happy Birthday Nigel Short

There are Nine Grandmasters who were born on "This Day in Chess History," including one woman:

1. Leonid Shamkovich of the United States, born 1923, GM 1965, died 4/22/2005
2. Mihai Şubă of Romania, born 1947, GM 1978.
3. Nigel Short of England, born 1965, GM 1984.
4. Georgy Timoshenko of the Ukraine, born 1966, GM 1994.
5. Mohamad Al-Modiahki of Qatar, born 1974, GM 1998.
6. Darwin Laylo of the Philippines, born 1980, GM 2007.
7. Laurent Guidarelli of France, born 1981, GM 2014.
8. Evgeny Shaposhnikov of Russia, born 1981, GM 2004.
9. Bela Khotenashvili (pictured at right>>>) of Georgia, born 1988, GM 2013.

Nigel David Short earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 19, and was ranked third in the world by FIDE from January 1988 to July 1989. In 1993 he became the first English player to play a World Chess Championship match, when he qualified to play Garry Kasparov in the World Chess Championship 1993 in London.

Short learned chess at age five from his father. A chess prodigy, Short first attracted significant media attention as a 10-year-old, by defeating Viktor Korchnoi, then ranked No. 2 in the world, in a simultaneous exhibition in London over 31 boards, where Short was the only victor. He was virtually self-taught. Short dominated British youth chess, and earned a Master rating with his showing in the 1977 British finals.

In 1979, at the British Championship at Chester, Short tied for first place, earning his first International Master norm. Later in 1979, Short tied for first place in the World Championship for players under age 16, the World Cadet Championship, at Belfort, France. He became (at the time) the youngest International Master in chess history by scoring 8/15 in the Hastings Premier in 1979/80, breaking Bobby Fischer's record from 1958. Participating in four World Junior Championships (1980–83), Short achieved his best result during his first attempt, when he placed second to Garry Kasparov in 1980 at Dortmund. Short represented England in international team play for the first time at the 1983 European Team finals in Plovdiv. He was awarded the grandmaster title in 1984, aged 19—becoming the youngest grandmaster in the world at the time.

Short won the British Chess Championship in 1984, 1987, and 1998, and the English Championship in 1991. He was the Commonwealth Champion in 2004 (Mumbai), 2006 (Mumbai) and 2008 (Nagpur). He won the 2006 EU Individual Open Chess Championship in Liverpool and took a share of second place in 2008 when it was held there again.

He has finished outright first, or tied for first, in dozens of other international tournaments, including Geneva (1979), Belfort, World Under 16 (1979), the BBC Master Game (1981), Amsterdam OHRA (1982), Baku (1983), Esbjerg (1984), British Rapidplay Chess Championship (1986), Wijk aan Zee (1986,
1987), Reykjavík (1987), Amsterdam VSB (1988, 1991, 1992, 1993), Hastings (1987/88, 1988/89), Pärnu (1996), Groningen (1996), Tallinn/Pärnu (1998), Isle of Man Monarch Assurance 1998, Dhaka United Insurance (1999), Shymkent (1999), Pamplona (1999/2000), Linares Open (2000), Tan Chin Nam Cup, Beijing (2000), Sigeman and Co. Malmö (2002, 2009, 2013), Gibraltar (2003, 2004, 2012), Budapest Hunguest Hotels (2003), Samba Cup, Skanderborg (2003), Taiyuan (2004), the Politiken Cup (2006), Bazna (2008), the Staunton Memorial (2009), Bangkok Chess Club Open (2011, 2012, 2015, 2017), Luanda (2011), 7th Edmonton International (2012), Bunratty (2012, 2016, 2017), RA Club Ottawa (2012), Pühajärve Rapid Chess Tournament (2012), Spicenet Tanzania Open (2013), Canadian Open Chess Championship (2013), PokerStars Isle of Man (2014), Zaw Win Lay Memorial Yangon (2014), the South African Open (2015) the 1st Stars Cup in Anzali (2016), the British Knockout Championship (2016), the Pre-League Blitz Open in Kampala (2018) and the GM Nigel Short Blitz in Lagos (2018).

Arguably Short's finest tournament performance came at the Amsterdam VSB tournament in 1991, where he tied for first place with Valery Salov ahead of both Kasparov and Karpov.

Nigel Short has been Vice-President of FIDE since October 2018.