Implications and Drama

The background to the formation of an entirely new chess body, the PCA, can be partly explained by the following two main factors:-

1) Nigel Short was expecting a greater prize fund and was thus annoyed with FIDE

After the announcement that the FIDE world championship between Kasparov and Short would be held in Manchester, Short discovered that Manchester's bid was £1.15 million. This bid was about 1 million lower than Short had expected. The Manchester organisers had consultations with their backers, FIDE and Kasparov(!). With these consultations they believed a purse of just over 1 million should be enough to secure the match. 

Short was furious. Somewhere along the line, 1 million pounds had gone missing. He promptly resigned as president of the Grandmaster Chess Association (GMA) and was motivated to set up the PCA with Kasparov (apparently unaware that Kasparov had been a significant factor in Manchester whittling down their prize fund) as a vehicle independent of FIDE.

William Hartston illustrates the spiraling world championship prize fund inflation in The Guinness Book of Chess Grandmasters and aptly describes the prize fund bubble which had been evolving from previous world championship events as bursting :-

"The bubble had burst, setting off seismic vibrations that were to rip the chess world in two"

2) Kasparov back in 1989 had felt that the GMA was too integrated with FIDE

Shortly before the third K-K episode, the Grandmasters chess association was set up, partly as a reaction to the unprecedented termination by Campomanes of the 1994-5 world title match. Also by arguments concerning rules and locations for various important world championship events

Back in 1989, after much internal dispute in the GMA over power sharing with FIDE, Kasparov had resigned as president of the GMA. Nigel Short was elected to proceed him.

Date: 7th September 1993

Implications and Drama

Game 1

Nigel Short lost on time (his flag fell on the conventional chess clock) at move 39 in the following position a pawn up:-

Game 3 

Kasparov gained the advantage with the aggressive g4 from the following position:-

Game 4

Kasparov sacrificed the exchange in the following position:-

After Rxc4 Bxc4, Kasparov played h4

and the dynamic potential of the black pieces gave black the advantage, which Kasparov later converted into a win

Game 7

Kasparov played the effective anti-marshall gambit variation:-

Later Kasparov demolished Short's king position with Nxh6

If now Nxh6 then Qg5+ Kh7 f6 gives white a crushing advantage. Short played Bf6 and after Bxf7 resigned

Short destroyed Kasparov in game 16

Kasparov's g5 seems quite loosening

h5 on move 32 loosens blacks position further

Short punishes Kasparov's outrageous g5 and h5 moves with this sharp tactical blow. After exf5 exf5 Kd8 Qxf6+ Kc8, White is easily winning

Despite Nigel Short's defeat, the UK's interest in chess was re-vitalised. Many people in the UK become much more interested in chess. Chess clubs boomed.

While Short and Kasparov played their World championship match under the auspices of the newly formed PCA a the Savoy theatre in London, Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman were resurrected to compete for the FIDE world championship title at a series of venues in the Netherlands and Indonesia

For the first time in chess history, the game of chess had two world champions. Both PCA and FIDE ran their own world title eliminators, each pretending the other one did not exist

Gata Kamsky won the right to challenge Karpov for the FIDE crown, whilst Anand won the right to challenge Kasparov for the FIDE crown.

Meanwhile Karpov became the FIDE world champion by beating Timman