Nigel Short never had the deepest bag of tricks at the very top of the game — he spent his best years measured against Kasparov and Karpov, after all — but at his sharpest he produced chess that fans still replay decades later. His trademark was direct, attacking play, and one of his games is so famous it has its own nickname. Here are a few of his most celebrated moments, described in plain English so you can enjoy the story even if you don’t want to move the pieces yourself.
Short vs. Timman, Tilburg 1991 — “The King Walk”
If Nigel Short has a single immortal game, this is it. Playing White against the Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman at the elite Tilburg tournament in 1991, Short reached a middlegame where his attack on Black’s king had stalled just short of breaking through. The problem was that his own pieces were already doing everything they could, and he needed one more attacker to finish the job.
His solution was one of the most astonishing ideas ever seen at the top level: he decided to bring up his king. In a position where the kings normally hide, Short calmly marched his monarch straight up the board — from its castled home on the kingside, step by step toward Black’s position. The king strolled forward while Timman, tied down and unable to create counterplay, could only watch. When Short’s king reached g5, the threat was decisive: the king would continue to h6, and mate with the queen would follow, and there was nothing Black could do to stop it. Timman resigned.
The game — a King Walk in the truest sense — was later voted one of the hundred greatest games of all time by a panel of expert authors and grandmasters. It’s the purest possible illustration of Short’s attacking imagination: when the normal pieces couldn’t get the job done, he sent the king to war. Fittingly, Timman had opened the game with the offbeat Alekhine Defence, meeting 1.e4 by immediately provoking White’s pawns forward.
The Karpov match, Candidates 1992 — beating a legend
Not every great performance is a single game — sometimes it’s a whole match, and this one changed Short’s life. In the 1992 Candidates stage of the World Championship cycle, Short was paired against former World Champion Anatoly Karpov, one of the greatest players in history and, at the time, still ranked among the very best on earth. On paper, it looked like a mismatch in Karpov’s favour.
Short won anyway. Over the course of the match he outplayed the legend, and the result sent a shockwave through the chess world — many described it as the end of an era, a sign that Karpov’s long dominance of the challenger’s cycle was finally over. For Short, it was the biggest result of his career and the moment that put him on the doorstep of a world title shot. He still needed to get past Jan Timman in the Candidates final, which he did, and with that he became the first English player ever to earn a World Championship match.
Beating Karpov in a full match — not a single lucky game, but a sustained head-to-head test — remains one of the finest achievements by any British player. You can read more about the man he’d meet next on Garry Kasparov’s profile.
Short vs. Kasparov, London 1993 (Game 16) — one shining win
Short’s 1993 World Championship match against Garry Kasparov, played in London under the banner of the breakaway Professional Chess Association, did not go the way English fans dreamed. Kasparov was at the peak of his powers, and he won the match convincingly, 12½–7½.
But it wasn’t a whitewash — and Game 16 is the reason. In that game Short finally solved the puzzle that had beaten him all match and scored a full point against the World Champion, his only win of the contest. Beating Kasparov even once, in his absolute prime and in a title match, is something the overwhelming majority of grandmasters never managed in their entire careers. For Short, that single win was a moment of real pride in a match that was otherwise an uphill battle from start to finish — proof that on his day he belonged on the same stage as the greatest player of the era.
A prodigy’s calling card — beating Korchnoi as a boy
Short’s legend began long before any of this. As a young boy — around the age of 10 — he took part in a simultaneous exhibition against the formidable Soviet grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi, a two-time World Championship challenger who was one of the strongest players alive. Korchnoi swept the room… except for one board. The small English schoolboy sitting behind the black pieces beat him, becoming the only person in the hall to win.
It’s not a tournament classic, but it’s a perfect origin story: the moment the chess world first realised that a genuinely special talent had arrived in England.
Why these games matter
Together, these moments capture the whole Nigel Short experience: the imaginative attacker who could send his own king on a march to deliver mate, the giant-killer who toppled Anatoly Karpov to reach a world title match, the fighter who grabbed a proud win against Kasparov even in defeat, and the prodigy who announced himself by beating a superstar before he’d even hit his teens.
Want to see how these ideas fit into his overall approach? Read about Short’s playing style, explore the openings he used to set up attacks like these, or head back to the main Nigel Short profile.
FAQ
What is Nigel Short’s most famous game? His 1991 win over Jan Timman at Tilburg, known as “The King Walk,” in which he marched his own king up the board to help force mate. It’s regularly listed among the hundred greatest games ever played.
Did Nigel Short ever beat Kasparov? Yes. Although he lost the 1993 World Championship match 12½–7½, he won Game 16 — a full point against Kasparov at the height of his powers.
How did Short reach the World Championship? By winning the 1992–93 Candidates matches, most famously beating former World Champion Anatoly Karpov and then Jan Timman in the final to become the official challenger.
Keep exploring
More Short: his playing style · his openings · his rating history · fun facts & records · or the full Nigel Short profile.
Written and fact-checked by the Chess Lab Academy Editorial Team · Facts verified against Wikipedia, the King walk article, and Chess.com, as of July 2026 · Last verified 2026-07-10 · How we verify content.