Fide vice-president Nigel Short to visit Kerala in December

KOCHI: British chess Grandmaster Nigel Short , who is also the incumbent Fide vice-president, will conduct coaching sessions and play a simultaneous event in Kochi on December 8.


The 54-year-old former challenger to Garry Kasparov 's world title will arrive in Kerala on December 6 and is also expected to meet state education minister C Raveendranath to discuss the possibility of making the board game part of the school curriculum.

Chess Kerala that will be hosting Short's tour of Kerala has informed that the former World No. 3 will conduct two sessions titled 'tomorrow's grandmasters - chess talent nurture' in Kochi for selected players from the state, on December 8. The same day, Short will take on 20 local players in a simultaneous event. International Master V Saravanan will accompany GM Short.

" Viswanathan Anand has visited Kerala before but that was not for conducting coaching sessions. GM Short will be the most high-profile player in the chess world to share his chess knowledge with our state-level players and it is going to be a great occasion," said Chess Kerala president NR Anilkumar.

Russian GM Igor Smirnov had conducted sessions in Thrissur in 2015.

GM Short is a highly influential figure in the chess world and was instrumental in former Russian deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich's successful campaigning for the post of the Fide president last year.

As a player, Short's claim to fame is vying for the controversial 1993 world chess title with Garry Kasparov conducted by the Professional Chess Association that was not recognized by the world chess body, Fide, which in turn conducted an 'official' title match between Jan Timman and Anatoly Karpov . Nevertheless, Short had lost the match to Kasparov.