Nigel Short to play at South Pole in Antarctic tournament criticised over climate impact

Nigel Short, the 61-year-old former world title challenger, will head to the Antarctic to play at the South Pole in a tournament announced on 18 September 2026. The event has drawn criticism over its carbon footprint even as Short prepares to attempt to become the first player to win tournaments on seven continents.

Short will travel from his long-term base in Greece — having formerly lived in Bolton — to Antarctica as part of the competition, which he accepts while serving as Fide’s director for chess development. His planned appearance has been framed by organisers as a bid to extend a career that has seen ageing grandmasters continue at a high level, citing Emanuel Lasker in his mid-60s at Moscow 1935 and 1936, Viktor Korchnoi in his seventies, and Vasily Smyslov reaching the 1984 Candidates final against Garry Kasparov at 63.

Opponents in the South Pole event will represent the five other inhabited continents and will include three women and several Fide officials. Critics have questioned the tournament’s environmental impact and suggested the format is undemanding — arguing Short could achieve similar publicity with a simultaneous display — while supporters point to the physical challenges of travel to the site.

Competitors must fly from Cape Town, South Africa into Antarctica’s interior on a journey described as more than 2,500 miles across the Southern Ocean, then continue to the South Pole in a small aircraft designed for remote polar operations on a further seven hour journey. The event is financed by private anonymous sponsors who are described as having an interest in promoting the game.

Short remained a candidate for the England team at the Samarkand Olympiad despite being listed as England’s No 6, a status set against the No 2 David Howell, who won individual gold at Chennai 2022 and is now prioritising a career as a media commentator. Short lost around 100 rating points in 2020 but, the report says, his rating has remained stable at close to 2,600 over the six years since despite reduced activity.

On the current September Fide list Short is at 2,594, four points behind Michael Adams and Luke McShane and 52 points ahead of Daniel Fernandez, who is described as 30 years Short’s junior and who was preferred for the Olympiad team. Fernandez has been significantly more active and won a strong international tournament in the Netherlands that coincided with the British Championships at Coventry; Short’s recent results include the World over-50 team championship in 2022, when he and Adams each won individual and gold medals, but he has not been chosen for any England team since then.

The Samarkand Olympiad opened on Wednesday, with England’s open team easing to a 4-0 win against Monaco in round one after both top board Nikita Vitiugov and Fernandez escaped from bad positions. Hans Niemann, making his Olympiad debut for the United States, won in 23 moves, while 12-year-old Faustino Oro, top board for Argentina, scored in 22 after using the rare 5 Qh5 in the Caro-Kann Advance Variation to gain an advantage, then blundering it away at move 19 before his Kenyan opponent collapsed a move later.

England Women began with a 4-0 victory in which 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan refuted her Barbados opponent’s 15 e4? with 15...c5!, a display described as more incisive than her hesitant Olympiad debut at Budapest 2024 aged nine. Thursday’s round-two pairings saw the England open team paired with Tajikistan while England Women met Nigeria; Sivanandan recorded another convincing win and, with Jovanka Houska drawing, the women posted a 3.5-0.5 margin to move to 7.5-0.5 overall.

Friday’s third round of the Olympiad can be viewed live online beginning at 11.15am BST; in the schedule England play Lithuania in the Open event and England Women meet Brazil in the Women’s event. 4042 1 Nb7! and Black resigned. If 1...Bxb7 2 Qxe7 wins the bishop, as does 1...Rxd6 2 Qxe7 h6 3 Qe8+. But the real hidden idea – congratulations if you found it – is the queen sacrifice 1...Nxd5 2 Nxd8! Nxb4 3 Re8 mate.