SOME of the best chess minds in WA will descend on Myaree this Sunday to take on English grandmaster Nigel Short.

Considered the second-best player in the world at one stage, Short will play 30 games simultaneously at the Rhein-Donnau Club from 1pm as part of his antipodean tour.

Local challengers include 16-year-old Patrick Gong, who won the Australian under-16 championship last year, and 87-year-old Wolfgang Leonhardt, an eight-time WA champion between 1954 and 1972.

• Patrick Gong and Wolfgang Leonhardt warm-up for their match against chess legend Nigel Short. Photo by Matthew Dwyer

“I have a chance of beating him because I have around four or five minutes before he gets back round to my board again,” says Leonhardt.

“I was the youngest member of the local chess club when I joined in 1952 and now I’m the oldest.

“I have met various grandmasters from Russia and Hungary over the years and some of them stayed at my house in the ‘60s when they visited WA.

“Chess keeps your brain sharp and I attribute my good health to playing it.”

Short, a chess prodigy, rose to prominence when he challenged Garry Kasparov for the world championship in 1993 in a series of televised games that raised the worldwide profile of the game.

Last year he caused controversy when he claimed women’s brains were not “hard-wired” for chess: in January the 50-year-old gobbled down some humble pie when he lost to Chinese grandmaster, Wenjun Ju, at the New Zealand Chess Championship.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK