Chess: Long-suffering Short

IT WAS a busy week in the chess world. Vlacheslav Tkachiev (Kazakhstan) coasted to victory in the Oakham School Masters tournament, half a point ahead of England's Peter Wells, and lawyers for Nigel Short and Garry Kasparov were kept busy issuing statements that only stirred the murky waters surrounding the world chess championship. Meanwhile, everything was happening in Monaco where Short himself has been having a rotten time.

The Second Amber Tournament has been producing startling results and rapid changes among the leaders. The event is a double-round all-play-all, one game quick-play and one blindfold quick-play, among 12 grandmasters. The early leader was Anatoly Karpov, who then suffered the indignity of being beaten twice by Judit Polgar. He lost the blindfold game by making what he thought was a capture with his queen, then realising that he had moved it to an empty square, where the queen was promptly taken. Miss Polgar then celebrated with two wins against Nigel Short as well. In Friday's seventh round, however, she was beaten twice by Vassily Ivanchuk. Leading scores are now Ivanchuk 9 1/2, Karpov and J Polgar 9, Ljubojevic 8 1/2 , Anand 8. Short shares last place.

Short, incidentally, has uttered words of encouragement to the players in the Jurys Hotel British Zonal Tournament in Dublin, which is the first qualifying round in the official world championship cycle. With Short and Kasparov cycling off together into the sunset, there is no clear indication of what will happen after the match to their own, now unofficial, world title.

Tony Miles was sufficiently bemused by it all to blunder to a shock defeat in the first round in Dublin. 21. Bd5?? was a complete oversight, losing a piece for nothing.

----------------------------------------------------------------- White: Miles Black: Rossiter ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1 d4 d5 14 Rc1 Ba7 2 Nf3 c5 15 Qb3 Re8 3 c4 e6 16 Rfe1 Rb8 4 cxd5 exd5 17 Nc4 Be6 5 g3 Nf6 18 Qf3 Rc8 6 Bg2 Be7 19 Qh5 Ne7 7 0-0 0-0 20 Nxe7+ Qxe7 8 dxc5 Bxc5 21 Bd5 Rc5 9 Bg5 Nc6 22 e4 dxe3 10 Nc3 d4 23 Nxe3 Rxc1 11 Bxf6 Qxf6 24 Rxc1 Bxe3 12 Nd5 Qd8 25 fxe3 Bxd5 13 Nd2 a6 White resigns -----------------------------------------------------------------