Short's bold play levels chess contest

NIGEL SHORT, England's world chess title contender, drew level with Jan Timman of the Netherlands by winning the third game of their match in San Lorenzo de El Escorial in Spain. It was a controlled and confident game by Short, contrasting with the edgy, blundering play that had brought defeat in the previous game.

For the first 17 moves, apart from one small transposition, play followed the first game, leading to a position in which the principal argument was whether Black's centre pawns were strong or weak. On move 21, Short played a committed pawn advance, apparently losing flexibility and surrendering important black squares in the centre, but also giving himself more space in which to organise his pieces. His judgement was vindicated when he sacrificed rook for knight on move 26 to launch a powerful attack. Timman resigned when he realised that his opponent's attack on his king would become irresistible.

The eventual winner of the 14- game match will challenge Garry Kasparov for the world title later this year.

The full moves of game 3 were:

White: Timman

Black: Short

Game 3

1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6

3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Bg5 Be7

5 e3 0-0 6 Nf3 h6

7 Bh4 b6 8 Be2 Bb7

9 Bxf6 Bxf6 10 cxd5 exd5

11 0-0 Re8 12 b4 c6

13 Qb3 a5 14 b5 c5

15 dxc5 bxc5 16 Rac1 Bxc3

17 Qxc3 Nd7 18 Rfd1 Qb6

19 Bf1 Rac8 20 h3 Nf6

21 Nd2 c4 22 a4 Re6

23 Rc2 Rce8 24 Nf3 Ne4

25 Qa1 Rf6 26 Rd4 Rxf3

27 gxf3 Qg6+ 28 Bg2 Ng5

29 Rc1 Nxf3+ 30 Kf1 Nh2+

31 Kg1 Nf3+ 32 Kf1 Nxd4

33 Qxd4 Qf5 34 Kg1 Re5

35 Qa7 Qc8 36 Kf1 Rg5

37 Qd4 Qf5 38 f4 Rg6

39 Kf2 Kh7 40 Rd1 Qc2+

41 Rd2 Qxa4 42 b6 Qb4

43 Rb2 Qe7 44 Ra2 Qh4+

White resigned

Judit Polgar, 16, shared first prize in the Hastings International Chess Tournament yesterday after defeating the Russian grandmaster Yevgeny Bareyev in the last round. She is both the youngest and first female winner at Hastings in a tournament that goes back to 1895.

Miss Polgar's achievement of finishing equal with Bareyev, who is ranked seventh in the world, and ahead of former world title candidates Jonathan Speelman and Lev Polugayevsky, has strong claims to be considered the greatest achievement by a woman player in international competition.

Final scores: Polgar and Bareyev 9; Speelman 8; Gurevich, Nunn and Sadler 7; Polugayevsky 5 1/2; Crouch 3 1/2.