It was Short and it was not short

Four Rathmines players were involved in the Nigel Short simul on Tuesday night – Killian Delaney, Michael Kennedy, Ian Maloney, and myself, Tony Scannell. And what a night! Play started about 8.30pm, after a fascinating lecture from Nigel, and only finished around 1am. I sat for the entire time period and only had to play one game and yet was exhausted. Nigel looked shattered. He certainly gave good value for money. He won 26 of 30 games and drew just 4. Here’s one of the draws…(which could have been a win, but read on…)

Short Simul Wynns Hotel, 22nd February, 2011.
White: Short, Nigel, 2658 vs. Black: Scannell, Tony, 1822
Replay Game

Sicilian Scheveningen
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 Nc6 I wanted a relatively calm game, so this move avoids the current theory around 6… e5. 7. f4 Qc7 8. O-O Bd7 9. Be3 e6 10. Qe1 Be7 We have transposed into a Sicilian Scheveningen. White has lots of space but black still has his compact e6, d6 little centre.
11. Qg3

Position after 11. Qg3
11… g6 (11… O-O Castling into it is theory, but I didn’t fancy defending this position! 12. Kh1 b5 13. a3 Nxd4 14. Bxd4 Bc6 15. Rae1 Qb7 16. Bd3 b4 17. axb4 Qxb4 18. Ne2 is one sample variation)