Oct 4, 2014
Description:
In 1958 there was a brilliant attacking chess game between Lev Polugaevsky and Rashid Nezhmetdinov played in a tournament held in Sochi, Russia. Nezhmetdinov chose the Old Indian Defense, Ukrainian variation and quickly obtained a slight lead in time when comparing the kingside developments. Polugaevsky’s decision to try and quickly negate Nezhmetdinov’s kingside fianchettoed bishop with 6.Qd2 and a subsequent/timely b3,Bb2, quite possibly influenced the coordination of Polugaevsky’s kingside minor pieces. Namely the kingside knight opted for e2 instead of f3. Nezhmetdinov’s queen, as a result, found a strong and aggressive post on h4 which eventually forced many concessions in the white camp. This impacted Polugaevsky, who chose a king walk towards the center despite all but two pawns of Nezhmetdinov’s entire army remaining on board. This set the stage for a brilliant masterpiece of attacking chess where a precise depth of calculation and an intuiative feel for resulting positions reigned supreme. It is no wonder so many have it pegged, “Nezhmetdinov’s Immortal”.
PGN:
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 d6 3. Nc3 e5 4. e4 exd4 5. Qxd4 Nc6 6. Qd2 g6 7. b3 Bg7 8. Bb2 O-O 9. Bd3 Ng4 10. Nge2 Qh4 11. Ng3 Nge5 12. O-O 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 Rxf4 25. Rxh2 Rf3+ 26. Kd4 Bg7 27. a4 c5+ 28. dxc6 bxc6 29. Bd3 Nexd3+ 30. Kc4 d5+ 31. exd5 cxd5+ 32. Kb5 Rb8+ 33. Ka5 Nc6+ 0-1