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Rashid Nezhmetdinov 1 - 0 Mikhail Tal USSR Championship (Baku) 1961, Rd.15                       |
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Rashid Nezhmetdinov 1 - 0 Mikhail Tal USSR Championship (Baku) 1961, Rd.15 |
The fearless attacking player, Rashid Nezhmetdinov (1912-74), had a combined plus score against the world champions he faced, including +3 -1 against Mikhail Tal. This is the best known of his wins against Tal.
The annotations to this game, by R. G. Nezhmetdinov, are from Shakhmaty v SSSR (No.3, 1962). The translation from the original Russian is by Douglas Griffin. It can be found on his excellent blog on Soviet-era chess at https://dgriffinchess.wordpress.com/ and is reproduced here with his kind permission.
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Be2 Nbd7
One does not question tastes, but to me more reliable appears 6...Nc6 followed by an exchange at d4 and ...Bc8-d7-c6, which permits Black to take aim at the important d4 square.
Also possible was 7...Nc5, forcing White to transfer the bishop to f3, and thereby obstructing the path of the f-pawn. The ex-World Champion prefers a sharper path to the struggle.
The idea of this move is to establish control over the central squares e4 and d5.
The e4 square must be held at all costs. The 'active' 10.g5 b4 11.gxf6 bxc3 was clearly to Black's advantage.
Intending the plan of taking control of the central squares f4 and d4, Black loses valuable tempi and does not have time to remove his king from the danger zone. In my opinion the plan associated with ...h7-h6 and then ...Nd7-b6, employed against me by V. Zhilin (RSFSR Championship, 1958), deserves greater attention. One may also recommend 11...e5, on which White ought to withdraw the knight to e2. 12.Nde2 Nc5 13.Ng3 exf4 14.Bxf4 Nfd7 15.Nf5 Ne5 16.Ne3. A lively struggle for the centre begins, in which White all the same has the better prospects.
The bold counter-blow in the centre - 12...d5 13.exd5 0-0-0 will not do in view of 14.b4 with advantage for White. B. Spassky suggested 12...Nfd7 which, evidently, is better.
Here too 13...Nfd7 was necessary. Admittedly, it must be noted that in this case after 14.Nd5 White's initiative is highly dangerous. 14...exf4
This knight on the edge of the board soon becomes one of the main attacking pieces. Nothing is given by 15.Bg5 since after 15... 15...Ncd7 16.Ne3 Bc5 all of the danger for Black is behind him.
The exchange of this bishop cannot be permitted!
After 16...Nf4 17.Bxf4 exf4 18.e5 matters for Black would have been altogether bad, for example:18... 18...Bxh6 or 18...Nd7 19.e6 Bxh6 20.exd7+ Kf8 21.Bxb7 Qxb7 22.Qe5 Kg8 23.g5 19.exf6+ Kf8 20.Qe7+! Black's position has seemingly been consolidated. Now he intends to remove his king. But at just this moment, sacrificing the exchange, White begins the decisive attack.
In the case of 18...Bxd5 19.exd5 Nd4 20.Qf2 Qb6 21.g5 Ne2+ 22.Kf1 Qxf2+ 23.Kxf2 Nxc1 24.gxf6 White has a material advantage sufficient for victory.
The variation 19...Bxd5 20.exd5 Nf4 21.Bxf4 exf4 22.Qxf4 Qb6+ 23.Kh1 0-0-0 24.c3 Rhe8 25.g5 Be7 26.Nxf7 was all the same the lesser of the evils.
It was still possible to go over to the above variation with 20...Bxd5
An interesting position arose after 21...Bh4 22.Qd4 Rf8 23.Rd1 and Black has no useful moves.
A concluding sacrifice, permanently demolishing the defensive structure around the black king.
White has a rook less, but Black is defenceless.
26.Rf5+ gxf5 27.Qxh8+ Ke7 28.Qg7+ Ke6 29.gxf5+
1 - 0
Translator's note: Here an editorial note indicates that this game was awarded a special prize, as the best in the tournament.