A less successful king walk

One of Nigel Shorts most celebrated game his his famous win against Jan Timman, where he marched his king up the board to assist in a mating attack. However, for every successful king walk, there are probably 100 times as many king 'drags' where the unwilling monarch is forced to walk the plank.
An example of such a situation occurred yesterday in the European Teams Championship, and Short was on the wrong end of the score line. Playing Hrant Melkumyan from Armenia, Short had his king forced up the board, starting on g2 on move 39 and reaching f8 by move 48. After that it was not long for this world, getting checkmated on e6, and move 50.


Short,Nigel D (2686) - Melkumyan,Hrant (2632) [A10]
European Team Chess Championship 2015 - Reykjavik (4.3), 16.11.2015

1. c4 g6 2. e4 e5 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. d4 exd4 5. Nxd4 Nf6 6. Bd3 O-O 7. O-O Nc6 8. Ne2 d6 9. Nbc3 Nd7 10. Bc2 Nc5 11. Be3 Be6 12. b3 a5 13. Rc1 a4 14. Nd5 Re8 15. Nef4 axb3 16. axb3 Bxd5 17. cxd5 Nb4 18. Bb1 Nxe4 19. Rc4 Nc3 20. Qd2 Nxb1 21. Rxb1 Na6 22. b4 Qd7 23. Qd3 Re7 24. g3 Rae8 25. b5 Nc5 26. Bxc5 dxc5 27. Rxc5 Re1+ 28. Rxe1 Rxe1+ 29. Kg2 Bf8 30. Rc4 Bd6 31. Ra4 Re8 32. Ne2 Rd8 33. Ra7 Bc5 34. b6 Bxb6 35. Rxb7 Qc8 36. Qa6 Qf5 37. Nf4 Qe4+ 38. f3 Qe3 39. Qa2 Qg1+ 40. Kh3 Qf1+ 41. Kg4 h5+ 42. Kg5 Qxf3 43. Qb2 Kh7 44. Qe5 Qg4+ 45. Kf6 Bd4 46. Qxd4 Rd6+ 47. Kxf7 Qd7+ 48. Kf8 Qd8+ 49. Kf7 Rd7+ 50. Ke6 Qe7# 0-1