When is a Strong Centre NOT a Strong Centre? (Answer: When Nezhmetdinov faces Tal!)

Chess is Art, Sport and Science, all rolled into one. In today's blog we explore a small sample of chess in the USSR, where chess players faced extraordinary pressure in the pursuit of excellence. This pressure could manifest in many ways, depending on the player. Some players were even executed for "plotting against the State", and others sent to die in the Gulag (forced labor camps).

(see at 2:00 in the following video....)

Many of my favorite chess players saw chess as an Art. Included in this group are Alekhine, Chigorin, Bronstein, Tal, Smyslov, Petrosian, Gufeld, Nezhmetdinov......they played with great imagination, and contributed many new ideas to our royal game. Yet these players had to also try to be good warriors, and be successful in the competitive arena.

In the Soviet Union, being a good chess players had benefits; it could lift you out of poverty! But it also brought tremendous pressure; I remember Sosonko relating how Furman came from a tournament game, and the pressure was so much his nose was bleeding! Oftentimes, when they were sent to foreign tournaments, they were ordered to take first place!

In a 1973 interview, Nezh stated:

"Creativity and beauty will be gradually leaving chess, with the sport/tournament side prevailing. We will be replaced by a new generation of chess players whose main skill is out-calculating the opponents. The depth of strategical and tactical thought, the subtlety of non-standard ideas, everything we call "romanticism" will be losing importance."

Petrosian also complained about how the fact that they had to play in so many qualifying tournaments, where the sporting result was of paramount importance, affected his style of play! Not losing became a virtue!

In the 1956 Candidates, the Soviet players started the tournament playing hard against each other. Spassky, at that time a young man, had beaten Smyslov in their individual encounter. Suddenly, an order came from the Kremlin: "Stop beating each other!" After that, the Soviets played to draw against one another.

But when two real artists of the chessboard meet, and develop a friendship over time, then wonderful things can happen! Such is the case between Tal and Nezhmetdinov. Rashid G. Nezhmetdinov was a true Artist of the chessboard, a true Romantic. His games sparkle with brilliant attacks and counter-attacks.

Tal speaks about Nezhmetdinov:

"…before the match for the World Championship with Mikhail Moiseevich Botvinnik in the year 1960 I invited Nezhmetdinov, with whom I had warm, friendly relations, to help me in the preparations. I consider this ‘move’ to have been remarkably successful. No, Nezhmetdinov was not a theoretician in the generally-accepted sense of this word – he had no card index, nor extensive notebooks, but he remembered his ideas. They attracted attention with their out-of-the-ordinary nature; they did not always withstand the test of time, but they always, to begin with, proved very dangerous for the opponent. While the ideas produced by Rashid Gibyatovich in the Sicilian Defence, in the Spanish Game, and in the King’s Indian, are still encountered in the practice of the leading chess-players of the World."

But the game I have in mind is special in a different way. In the following game, played in the 1957 Soviet Championship, which Tal won, Nezh is able to dominate the board. In the middlegame, even though Tal "controls" the centre with two unopposed pawns, he can do nothing with it! Therefore the title for this article.

In chess, when two great Masters meet, sometimes one of them has a deeper understanding of the position, and this determines who wins. It is not so much a tactical, but a strategical problem that one Master is better able to solve. Such is the case in this game.

1957 USSR CHAMPIONSHIP

Out of Nezhmetdinov's 5 victories, one was against Tal, and another one against Spassky!

Here is the game against Tal.

The comments and introduction are by Alex Pishkin, ICCF Master and author of
"Super Nezh" (c) Thinkers' Press, 2000

Tal was 20 years old when this tournament was played!

Pishkin's Introduction:

"This game was played in an atmosphere of high anxiety. It was the 6th round of the championship. The 20-year old master Tal, having 4.5 points of 5, was suddenly leading the tournament. He had defeated such GMs as Taimanov and Bronstein. Now, not a young, nor famous master, was on his way. Tal knew Nezh was strong in attack and was good at playing the Sicilian Defense with White. That's why he chose the French Defense as an opening surprise for Nezh. However, Tal was playing this defense only for the second time in his life- a mixture of reckless bravery and giddiness from success. At this point Tal's opening "preparation" was over."

Enjoy! With wishes of good health, peace and joy for everyone!