The match on this page, sponsored by Friogas and Philips and organized by Luis Rentero Suarez and others, was one of two matches held at Hotel Anibal in the City of Linares, Andalucia, Spain, from 11 to 27 & 28 April 1992. The other match was the Timman - Yusupov Candidates Semifinal (1992). All four semifinalists had played in the Linares (1992) tournament one month earlier. The draw for pairings was made in Brussels on 24 August 1991, right after the quarterfinals had ended, by David Anderton and John Nunn. The matches were held in order to have a challenger for world champion Garry Kasparov.
Photo: https://web.archive.org/web/2024031...
The event was opened on 10 April by FIDE president Florencio Campomanes and Roman Toran, while the GMA representatives were nowhere to be seen. Short had qualified from the Short - Gelfand Candidates Quarterfinal (1991), and Karpov had won the Karpov - Anand Candidates Quarterfinal (1991). Short was seconded by Lubomir Kavalek and Michael Stean, whilst Karpov was seconded by Mikhail Podgaets and Vladimir Epishin. The match was best of 10 games or the first to achieve 5½ points. The organizers had not included room for timeouts in the schedule, but upon arrival, Karpov demanded this option based on FIDE's regulations. All players became entitled to one 1-day timeout. The prize money was 150,000 Swiss francs. Chief arbiter Carlos Falcon Martin replaced Svetozar Gligoric, who was recovering from an operation.
Linares, Andalucia, Spain, 11-28 April 1992
Age Elo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
Short 25 2685 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 0 1 ½ 1 6
Karpov 40 2725 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 1 0 ½ 0 4
Short went on to the Short - Timman Candidates Final (1993). "The end of an era"."Short has done it. By defeating Karpov in the tenth game in Linares he has scored an historic triumph making him the first ever British player to penetrate to the final of the qualifying competition. There his opponent will be the Dutch grandmaster, Jan Timman, who saw off his semi-final rival Artur Yusupov by the same score of 6-4. This is the first time that the candidates final has been fought out between two Westerners. ... In game 4 Nigel finally made the break-through to score his first direct hit. ... Game 5 was somewhat of a disappointment, in that Nigel had an extra pawn for most of the game but could not convert it, but in game 6 our man was the beneficiary of the most spectacular blunder of Karpov's long and illustrious career. ... The former champion struck back in game 7. Having outplayed Nigel, the crunch came when Karpov found an elegant way to separate Nigel from his queen. Once again, the tenacious Karpov, as so often in the past, had immediately recovered from what, to others, would have been a devastating blow to the morale. ... Nigel could virtually have decided the match in game 9. A pawn ahead with the better position, he could have maintained a decisive advantage by playing 41...Qc7. Instead, uncertain whether he had passed the time control at move 40 Nigel hammered out 41...Qa8+ 42 Kh3 Qh8 43 Qxh8+ Kxh8 44 bxc5 bxc5 45 Rb2 Kg7 46 Rb6 after which White had sufficient compensation for his pawn and could not lose. ... The tenth and final game was an up-and-down struggle. At first Nigel had a total grip on the game, then he allowed Karpov some counterplay but finally, after Karpov had more or less accidentally 'won' Nigel's queen, it turned out to be a pyrrhic conquest and Karpov resigned when Nigel's 'c' pawn was about to romp home and queen." (Keene)
Sources
Mark Weeks' website (https://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/91...)
FIDE rating list January 1992 (https://web.archive.org/web/2022100...)
Jaque 328 (June 1992), pp. 3-27 (https://www.olimpbase.org/leagueES/...)
Norsk Sjakkblad, 3/1992, pp. 20-22 (https://dnkjuhc6if10z.cloudfront.ne...)
Sakkélet, 10 December 1992, pp. 234-241 (https://adt.arcanum.com/en/view/Sak...)
Tidskrift för Schack, May-June 1992, pp. 193-198 (https://tfsarkiv.schack.se/pdf/1992...)
John Grefe in Chess Life, August 1992, pp. 40-42 (https://uscf1-nyc1.aodhosting.com/C...)
Raymond Keene in The Spectator, 2 May 1992, p. 44 (https://archive.spectator.co.uk/art...)
Hans Ree in NRC Handelsblad, 26 August 1991, p. 20 (https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/v...)
Hans Ree in NRC Handelsblad, 11 April 1992, p. 11 (https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/v...)
Hans Ree in NRC Handelsblad, 13 April 1992, p. 17 (https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/v...)
Hans Ree in NRC Handelsblad, 16 April 1992, p. 28 (https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/v...)
Hans Ree in NRC Handelsblad, 27 April 1992, p. 19 (https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/v...)
Zenon Franco Ocampos in ABC Color, 12 March 2007 (https://www.abc.com.py/deportes/sho...)
Paul Boersma in Algemeen Dagblad, 10 April 1992, p. 19 (https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/v...)
Paul Boersma in Algemeen Dagblad, 29 April 1992, p. 21 (https://www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten/v...)
Original collection: Game Collection: Short - Karpov Candidates Semifinal by User: Tabanus. Game dates (April 11, 12, 14, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23, 25, 28) are from Dutch newspapers at https://www.delpher.nl/.
Kibitzing
