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Short taking chess title about as likely as spotting NessieLONDON (AP) — Poor Nigel Short. A-month ago he was the battling David o£the chess world, put to conquer Goliath.Today, the odds of him becoming world chess champion are on a par v\4th the Loch Ness Monster turning;ip.To be fair, Short’s chances of defeating Garry Kasparov were never verygQod. Kasparov, after all, is the highest-rated player in chess history. But after weeks of hype, experts and ama-KHirs had expected Short to win at !4ast a few games.*He has come maddeningly close, but more than half the 24-game match has been played without a Short victory. Alter five straight draws, Kasparov beat him again on Saturday.Tit's as if he’s some sort of dazed sheep seized by the glare of a deadly chbra,” said British grandmaster Raymond Keene, who brought the match 16 London. “He’s played very well to get winning positions — but then when it comes to putting the boot in,I .he seems to go blind or panic.”Short’s shortcomings have taken their toll on the championship.British media compare him to Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards, Britain’s nohope ski jumper. An international competition to guess the players' next move has been abandoned. The Savoy Theater is half empty on weekdays, even though the top ticket price has been cut from 150 pounds to 55 pounds ($225 to $83).The Times, which put up most of the 1.7 million pounds ($2.55 million) in prize money and spent hundreds of thousands of pounds trying to generate chess fever, insists its sponsorship has paid off.“It’s been a great success for The Times,” said Peter Stothard. editor of the newspaper. “For whatever the chess cost us. we’ve had 60 hours of TV on Channel 4 with The Times prominently featured ... and we’re getting about 500 press cuttings a week from Britain and around the world.”He figures the free advertising is worth far more than the $3.5 million the paper has spent.But the empty seats cause some others to agree with The Daily Telegraph, which called the tournament “sheer embarrassment” and “a turkey” in an editorial Wednesday.Kevin Chappie, manager of the Savoy Theater, said The Times made a big mistake by believing it could recoup its expenditure at the box office.“They totally misjudged the market for tickets,” he said, noting that the cheapest seats still cost 20 pounds ($30). A substantial number of tickets are being given away to chess players and students.The other sponsor. Teleworld Holding of Rotterdam, Netherlands, stopped its “predict-a-move” competition in mid-September. The telecommunications company needed 2,000 fans to place several calls during every game guessing moves, but got no more than 500.“Of course we’re disappointed, saidWytze de Back, Teleworld's vice president of corporate communications. “We have lost some money on it. ... But the money we invested was mainly in an international infrastructure, and that infrastructure can be used for other purposes.The one bright spot has been television: Millions of viewers have watched the coverage in Britain. Canada, the United States and elsewhere.“It has brought a specialist game into millions of new homes and research shows that a large proportion of viewers are in the younger age groups,” said Michael Grade, whose independent Channel 4 bought the television rights.There is no question that the match would be a much bigger attraction ifShort had not muffed several chancesto win.Russian grandmaster Vladimir Dvorkovich, who predicts a Kasparov victory by game 18, said Short's difficulties result from inexperience and coming up against a stronger player.Short is ranked ninth in the world and Australian grandmaster Ian Rogers of Sydney said Kasparov’s lead accurately reflects the champion’s rating. 145 points higher than Short’s.“Short is trying to beat him in every game, which means he’s taking more risks,” Rogers said. “One thing that’s strange is that no one believes Kasparov is playing at full strength yet.”Some grandmasters believe the sudden departure of Short's chief strategist, Czech-born American grandmaster Lubomir Kavalek of Reston, Va.. has hurt the challenger. Rumors keep circulating that Short is not listening to his advisers.According to William Hill, the tournament's official bookmakers. Short’s inability to win has killed the game for bettors.Odds against Short becoming champion long ago surpassed those of extraterrestrial life being discovered, said Graham Sharpe, spokesman for the bookmakers, and if he keeps losing. “his next stop is Elvis Presley being discovered alive.”I**f
Newspaper Details
Burlington Times News
Burlington, North Carolina, US
Sun, Oct 10, 1993
Page 13
Full Page
Clipped by
Los A.
CA, USA 29 Nov 2022
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