"A good sacrifice is one that is not necessarily sound but leaves your opponent dazed and confused."
-Nigel Short
Nigel Short (born June 1, 1965 in Leigh) is an English chess grandmaster and a damned good one at that. According to the July 2004 FIDE ratings, he's ranked number 21 in the world with an Elo rating of 2684, the best in England save for Michael Adams (who surpasses him with a rating of 2738). He has been made an honorary OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in acknowledgment of his achievements. He currently lives in Greece with his wife and their two children and says he has no plans to return to England any time soon.
His chess accomplishments include the following:
Aside from trophies, he's also well-known for contending with (but losing to) Kasparov in the final game of the 1993 World Chess Championship and declaring recently that he believed he had been playing chess with someone he was "99% sure" was Bobby Fischer over the internet (which Fischer denied)
In 1980, at the age of fourteen, Nigel Short was awarded the degree of International Master, the second youngest recipient of the title in history. He later became an official grandmaster when he was nineteen. Short's father later published a biography of his son, expounding on how a parent can help a child chess prodigy develop their game.
He's a good author too and I first learned the nuts and bolts of chess from a simple primer of his called Chess Basics, which I'd recommend to any beginner looking for an easy read. Short is also currently writing the Daily Telegraph's chess column.
Short regularly plays on the ICC (Internet Chess Club), where he goes by the handle of honestgirl. This is an anagram of his name and not the sign of a sexual identity crisis.
Speaking of anagrams, the letters of his name can also be rearranged to form "snog Hitler." Make of that what you will.
sources:
http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/science_fair_projects_encyclopedia/Nigel_Short
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Nigel%20Short
http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/nigel_short/
http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/science_fair_projects_encyclopedia/Nigel_Short
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Nigel%20Short
http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/nigel_short/
http://www.btinternet.com/~cccs.chess/ChessClubCoaching.htm
http://www.soszynski.btinternet.co.uk/sccc/members.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
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