The greatest British chess player of 20th century, international Grandmaster, finalist of the 1993 PCA World Championship match, repeated national champion, silver medalist from the World Chess Olympiads, owner of the Order of British Empire, Nigel David Short will be commentator at the World Chess Blitz Championship.

Famous English Grandmaster Nigel Short almost always justifies expectations of his numerous fans. The only thing to surprise you might be his appearance, complete antonym of his family name - with height of more than 190 cm, he is one of tallest Grandmasters in the world. In his young age, Nigel often shocked conservative English (and not only English) public, because he used to come to chess tournaments with guitar and accompanied by his rock band. But in the "fight" between music and chess, the latter won. Together with his compatriots Tony Miles, John Nunn, John Speelman and Murray Chandler, Short successfully struggled with the menacing USSR team at the World Chess Olympiads in 80s.

Chess world was shocked in 1992 - Anatoly Karpov, the perpetual opponent of Garry Kasparov, was eliminated by Nigel Short in the semi-final match of world championship. Short beat Ian Timman, another star of the western chess world, in the final candidates match and played with Kasparov! The match that was played in 1993 was not successful for Short, but he was the first to break the domination of soviet chess school after Bobby Fisher had left chess.

Numerous fans of Nigel Short remember him by wide friendly smile and perfect British gentlemanship. He was awarded by the Order of British Empire for his incontrovertible merits in British chess. Short traveled all over the world and lately prefers tournaments which are organized in Asia (India, China, Philippines, Myanmar). Kazakhstan didn’t become an exception! Nigel had played in tournament in Shymkent in 1999 and had shared the first place there. It was surprise for Nigel, but there are a lot of his fans in Kazakhstan too.