Swiss Toni writes for New In Chess

Nigel Short...comes across as a bit juvenile and something of a sex addict, but relatively modest for a chess genius.

Or so says a reviewer of Paul Hoffman's King's Gambit: I've not read the book but a strikingly similar thought occurred to me last month, when I found myself observing, in Nigel's commentary in New In Chess, his

liking for a certain sexual metaphor: used, perhaps, a little adolescently, giving the reader the impression that the literary effectiveness of the metaphor was less important than the author's keenness to use it.

Well, last week the latest issue arrived, including Nigel's account of how he won the Sigeman Tournament in Malmö. Wherein I was not entirely surprised to read the following:

In recent years it is well known that I have favoured the Tartakower Variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined. However, playing the same opening is rather like making love to the same woman: no matter how good she is, one craves a little variety every now and again...

Hey ho. I'm sure I was saying just the other day that English chess needs to grow up about women.

Although, as I said last month: is Nigel trying to tell us something?