Wijk aan Zee 1986 (Hoogovens)

◇A field without last year's champion

The 1986 field averaged 2539 — category XII, a step below the previous year's XIII, and drawn from a different pool of names than 1985's group: no Timman, Beliavsky, Korchnoi or Nunn this time. Robert Hübner headlined as the highest-rated entrant, alongside Yasser Seirawan, the Yugoslav pairing of Ljubomir Ljubojević and the rising Predrag Nikolić, Alexander Chernin, Vlastimil Hort and a strong Dutch contingent of John van der Wiel, Gennadi Sosonko, Paul van der Sterren and Hans Ree. England's Julian Hodgson, Sweden's Ferdinand Hellers and the American Nick de Firmian rounded out the field.

Short arrived as a promising rather than proven quantity — a grandmaster since 1984 at nineteen, but with no Hoogovens result yet to his name. His entry rating of 2585 left him well down the seed list behind Hübner and Seirawan.

◇Six wins, seven draws, no losses

Short opened by beating Hübner, the tournament's top seed, in round one, then added wins over Ferdinand Hellers, Hans Ree, Paul van der Sterren, Nick de Firmian and Gennadi Sosonko across the rest of the schedule. His seven draws — against Ljubojević, Chernin, Van der Wiel, Nikolić, Seirawan, Hort and Hodgson — cost him nothing in the standings. Six wins, seven draws, no defeats, for 9½/13 and a performance rating of 2710, some 125 points above his own entry rating.

Van der Wiel, Ljubojević and Nikolić shared second on 8, a point and a half back. Hübner recovered from his round-one loss to finish outright fifth on 7½, with Hodgson and Sosonko sharing sixth on 7. Seirawan, Chernin and Hort tied on 6½; Van der Sterren, Hellers and Ree shared last-but-one on 4½, and De Firmian finished last on 3.

◇The road to London

Short defended his title the following January, sharing first place with Viktor Korchnoi at the 1987 Hoogovens. The Wijk aan Zee breakthrough marked the start of his rise through the world's elite: by 1993 he had become the first English player to contest a World Chess Championship match, losing to Garry Kasparov in London under the Professional Chess Association's banner.