Short's blunder costs the game
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Your support makes all the difference.NIGEL SHORT, England's world chess championship contender, lost the second game of his final eliminating match against Jan Timman thanks to a blunder at the 25th move. Timman leads 1 1/2 - 1/2 with 12 games to play.
Until the mistake, the game had been well balanced, though Short had looked slightly less comfortable in the heavy strategic manoeuvring of a battle in which the first exchange did not occur until the 20th move.
On his 25th move, Short pushed forward a pawn, further increasing the complexity in the centre of the board, but apparently overlooking a simple reply that won a knight for Timman.
Perhaps it was Timman's 26th move that Short missed, when the Dutch grandmaster, 41, moved his attacked queen to defend a crucial centre pawn. Whatever the precise nature of the miscalculation, it was an elementary error to decide a game at this level.
With the victor in this match promised the prize of a dollars 4m (pounds 2.68m) world title match against Garry Kasparov, both players and most commentators have said that it would be decided by nerves as much as chess skill. But nobody predicted anything quite as suicidally twitchy as Short's blunder yesterday.
Supporters of Short, 27, have, however, been quick to point out that in all the earlier rounds of the world championship, he suffered disastrous losses to go one down early on. With 12 games still to play, he will not be worried yet.
Today is a rest day. The third game will be played tomorrow. Full moves of the second game:
White: Short
Black: Timman
1 e4 e5
2 Nf3 Nc6
3 Bb5 a6
4 Ba4 Nf6
5 0-0 Be7
6 Re1 b5
7 Bb3 d6
8 c3 0-0
9 h3 Bb7
10 d4 Re8
11 Nbd2 Bf8
12 Bc2 Nb8
13 a4 Nbd7
14 Bd3 c6
15 b3 g6
16 Qc2 Bg7
17 Bb2 Qc7
18 Rad1 Rac8
19 Qb1 Nh5
20 Bf1 bxa4
21 bxa4 d5
22 Qa2 Rcd8
23 Rc1 Bh6
24 exd5 cxd5
25 c4 e4
26 cxd5 Qf4
27 Rb1 exf3
28 Rxe8+ Rxe8
29 Nxf3 Qf5
30 Bc4 Nf4
31 Bc1 Bxd5
32 Bxd5 Nxd5
White resigns
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