Chess - The Scotsman, 09/10/12

RASHID Nezhmetdinov (1912-74) was one of the greatest attacking chess players ever.

Remarkably little-known for such a prodigious talent, he was the only man ever to become a Soviet Master at both chess and draughts and had a plus score against Mikhail Tal. Tal wrote: “With the passage of time tournament tables tend to lose interest, but some games played in these tournaments live forever, and in this respect Nezhmetdinov is one of the most richly endowed players. I have played four games with the Tartar master and the score is 3-1 in his favour.”

Born in Aktiubinsk, Nezhmetdinov later moved to Kazan, in Tatarstan and went on to develop an attacking style that was more reminiscent of a bygone romantic era of the 19th century. His ‘victims’ list for his exciting brand of all-out chess included Spassky, Boleslavsky, Bronstein, Flohr, Geller, Kholmov, Lilienthal and Polugayevsky.

In the West, “Super Nez” was unknown for many years as his games were not widely circulated, and it’s only been in the past decade or so with the publication of two biographical books on him, that this unknown warrior has been “rediscovered” for the annals of the game. The 34th Rashid Nezhmetdinov Cup, marking the centenary of his birth, attracted over a dozen grandmasters and ended last week in Kazan.

In a field restricted mainly to Russia and the ex-Soviet Republics, the Open Swiss was won outright on 7/9 by GM Boris Savchenko of Russia.

B Savchenko - I Gerasimov

34th Rashid Nezhmetdinov Cup, (4)

Sicilian Najdorf

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Bg5 e6 7 f4 Nbd7 8 Qf3 Be7 9 0–0–0 Qc7 10 g4 h6 11 Bxf6 gxf6 12 h4 Nb6 13 g5 hxg5 14 hxg5 Rxh1 15 Qxh1 fxg5 16 Qh8+ Bf8 17 f5 Bd7 18 Qg8 e5 19 Ne6! fxe6 20 Qg6+ Kd8 21 Qf6+ Be7 22 Qh8+ Be8 23 f6 Nd7 24 f7 Nf8 25 fxe8R+ Kxe8 26 Bh3 Rc8 27 Bxe6 Rb8 28 Nd5 Qc5 29 Qh5+ Kd8 30 Qf7 Nxe6 31 Qxe7+ 1–0