Short about the Kramnik-Leko match

Nigel Short uses some strong words to describe his point of view of the Kramnik-Leko match, in today's instance of his excellent, if very subjective, telegraph column, in which he also does not shy away from analysing his own losses:

"Neither of these two Titans deserved to win the World Championship, so it is most appropriate that neither of them did. We will not be fooled into believing that this was an interesting match just because the last two games were exciting. No, the overriding impression was of a turgid and dreary affair.

Once upon a time they would have got away with it. When chess fans received their monthly magazine with carefully distilled highlights, the dross was discreetly hidden away. Now, in the age of live internet broadcasts, there is no “junk game filter”. The rubbish is clearly visible. People will not be fobbed off with heavy theory, a novelty, a 40-minute think and then a draw offer, with happy smiles all round as the hands are shaken. The crowd, quite rightly, want blood."

Of course Nigel Short is just the man who can get away with these words, indeed in his match against Gary Kasparov there was only one short draw, and a fight and blood all over in the other 19 games. Certainly my favourite world championship match, although Peter might call Nigel's performance as "not professional" because of the disappointing number of points Nigel was able to achieve at the time. Of course Nigel's critique is not very constructive, I hope my earlier comments were a bit more substantial in that respect.