MARK RUBERY CHESS
One of my favourite games comes from the unheralded Russian genius, Rashid Nezhmetdinov, whose vast talent is (very much like the artist Vincent Van Gogh) was only appreciated by the wider public many years after his death. Rashid Nezhmetdinov (19121974) came from a generation of players that included Petrosian, Tal, Korchnoi etc, and while he is far less known than these giants of the game, his artistry at the board was no less pronounced. Holding a lifetime 3-1 score against Tal when the former world champion was in his prime, this player who never attained the GM title was at times capable of unparalleled brilliance.
Here is Nezhmetdinov’s ‘immortal game’ against a player who was to go on to become one of the strongest players in the world.
Polugaevsky,l - Nezhmetdinov,r [A53] Sochi, 1958
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 d6 3.Nc3 e5 4.e4 exd4 5.Qxd4 Nc6 6.Qd2 g6 7.b3 Bg7 8.Bb2 0-0 9.Bd3 Ng4 10.Nge2 Qh4 11.Ng3 Nge5 12.0-0 f5 13.f3 Bh6 14.Qd1 f4 15.Nge2 g5 16.Nd5 g4 17.g3 fxg3 18.hxg3 Qh3 19.f4 Be6! 20.Bc2 Rf7 21.Kf2 Qh2+ 22.Ke3 Bxd5 23.cxd5 Nb4 24.Rh1 (At this stage White could be forgiven for thinking he was winning comfortably. However…)… Rxf4!! 25.Rxh2 (25 Nxf4 Nxc2+ or 25 gxf4 Bxf4+ 26 Kd4 Qf2+ 27 Kc3 Qc5#)... Rf3+ 26.Kd4 Bg7! 27.a4 (27 Ng1! seems to hold ...c5+ 28 dxc6 Ned3+ 29 Kc4 b5+= Fritz)... c5+ 28.dxc6 bxc6 29.Bd3 Nexd3+ 30.Kc4 d5+ 31.exd5 cxd5+ 32.Kb5 Rb8+ 33.Ka5 Nc6+ 0-1
Polugaevsky is quoted as saying, “I must have beaten Rashid a dozen times. But that one loss was so good I would have traded them all to be on the other side of the board.”
During World War II, Nezhmetdinov served in the military, thus delaying the further progress of his chess career until 1946. In 1949, the Russian Checkers Semifinals were held in Kazan. Nezhmetdinov attended as a spectator, but when one of the participants failed to show up, Nezhmetdinov agreed to substitute for him even though he hadn’t played checkers for 15 years. He won every game, qualifying him for the Finals, which were to be held immediately after a chess tournament in which he was also participating. He won the tournament and immediately thereafter placed second in the Russian Checkers Championship.
Nezhmetdinov, this nondescript short man, wearing the same suit for years and living on several cups of extremely strong tea a day, was burning himself with the best fire in the world, the search of Eternal Beauty, did not belong to the elite. For this he was too much of a genius. – Lev Khariton