Raschid Gibjatowitsch Neschmetdinow

Neschmetdinov's tombstone (2015)

Raschid Gibjatowitsch Neschmetdinow ( Russian Рашид Гибятович Нежметдинов , often in English transcription Rashid Nezhmetdinov ; born December 15, 1912 in Aktyubinsk ; † June 3, 1974 ) was a Soviet chess and checkers player . He was International Master of Chess (1954) and Master of Sports of the USSR in Checkers (1950).

Life

Neschmetdinov's parents were farmers. After they died early, a brother of Rasheed had to look after the family. They moved to Kazan . Due to the turmoil and economic hardship after the Russian October Revolution, the parentless family suffered from great poverty.

Rashid learned the rules of chess as a child while watching games in the chess club. He was able to beat the players right away. In 1927 he won all fifteen games in the Kazan Pioneers' tournament . In the same year he learned to play checkers. Just a month later, he won the semi-finals of the Kazan Women's Championships. In the final he was second and sixth in the Russian championship in the checkers game of the same year.

After finishing his studies in 1940 Neschmetdinov was drafted into the army . In early 1941 he won the championship of the Transbaikal Military District and was only able to take part in chess tournaments again in 1946.

At the preliminary round for the Soviet ladies championship in 1949, he was initially only present as a spectator. After a player withdrew from the tournament, Neschmetdinov took his place and remained unbeaten with 12 points out of 16. The next year he became a Russian chess master.

Neschmetdinow was a total of five times chess master of the Russian Union Republic . He took part in several championships of the USSR and was able to achieve a 7th place as the best result in 1954. He achieved victories against world-class players such as Mikhail Tal , Boris Spassky , Lev Polugajewski and Efim Geller . For September 1954, its best historical rating of 2660 was determined.

He was considered a particularly talented combination player . He often made surprising material sacrifices . As a result, he was hired as the coach of Mikhail Tal for his world championship fight against Mikhail Botvinnik . In 1962 he was awarded the title of Honored Coach of the USSR . Botvinnik said of him: "Nobody understands combinations like Neschmetdinov."

Game example

Polugayevsky-Neschmetdinov

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

Position after White's 24th move

Neschmetdinov won one of his most famous games in Sochi in 1958 with the black pieces against Lev Polugajewski.

Polugayevsky-Neschmetdinow 0-1

Sochi, June 1958

Ancient Indian Defense , A54

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 diagram Txf4 A spectacular queen sacrifice 25 Txh2 T f3 + 26. Kd4 Bg7 threatens matt by 27 ... b5 and 28 ... Sec6 27 a4 c5 + 28 dxc6 bxc6 29. Bd3 Sexd3 + 30 + 31 Kc4 d5 exd5 cxd5 + 32. KB5 Rb8 + 33rd Ka5 Nc6 + 0: 1

Works

• Izbrannye partii , Kazan 1960; English edition: Nezhmetdinov's Best Games of Chess , Edition Caissa 2000, ISBN 0-939433-55-9 .

literature

• Alex Pyshkin: Super Nezh, Chess Assassin. Thinkers' Press 1999, ISBN 0-938650-91-2 .

Web links

• Jessica Fisher: Nezhmetdinov chess biography (film biography 2011), youtube.com (English)
• Richard Forster: Late Knight. Secret Hero ( Memento from March 30, 2001 in the Internet Archive ), chesscafe.com (English)
• Replayable chess games by Raschid Gibjatowitsch Neschmetdinow on chessgames.com (English)
• Chessmetrics Player Profile: Rashid Nezhmetdinov (Results January 1949 - January 1973, English)