Rashid Nezhmetdinov (12/15/1912 - 06/03/1974) is from the former USSR, and spent the majority of his career within the circuit, rarely playing in international events, and of those that he did, they were predominantly minor events, the lone exception being Bucharest 1954. Therefore, he was not very well known by areas of the Western world, such as the United States, but those local to the area in the USSR all knew him as a very fierce attacker, though unlike many amateurs, including a few at our club itself, that show a complete lack of patience and want a bloody game every time, Nezhmetdinov was also able to grind out late middlegame and endgame positions that required positional technique, and that is what we will be seeing here. His opening repertoire consisted mostly of playing 1.e4 as White, and playing 1...e5 in response to 1.e4 along with the King's Indian Defense in response to 1.d4. Every GM has a most notable game. For instance, with Fischer, it was his game as Black in a Grunfeld against Byrne in New York in 1956. For Kasparov, it would be his game as White in a Pirc against Topalov at Wijk aan Zee in 1999. Well, for Nezhmetdinov, it was most certain his game as Black in a King's Indian Defense (played through an Old Indian move order) against Polugaevsky in Sochi in 1958, and that game can be viewed here. The most notable moment in the game is the Queen sacrifice on move 24 and how the White King is hunted down similar to Fischer's game from 1956, though the follow-up is not quite as long as Fischer's was. Those of you with a bloodbath style of play, I recommend looking at his games.
There's another thing that Nezhmetdinov was known for. Novelties. They may not have always been the best move on the board, but it was enough to trick his opponents, and unlike many amateurs, he knew exactly when to execute. If his opponent plays the best moves, it was not a complete waste of time for Nezhmetdinov, and his position was still playable, which is one key factor to successfully playing novelties and traps. Don't rely on them to always work, and if your opponent doesn't fall for it, you have to make sure that it doesn't impose self-inflicting damage to your own position. A prime example of this was his game against Stalberg in Bucharest 1954. It was also a French, in this case a McCutcheon, where Black played a slightly inferior 12th move (12...Qc7 instead of 12...Bd7 or 12...Qa5), and Nezhmetdinov had expected this, and played the slightly odd 13.dxc5. The position at the end was still drawn with best play at move 43, but Nezhmetdinov had tried a tricky waiting move at move 43 and Black failed to defend correct and Nezhmetdinov once again won. That game can be seen here.
But today we will be looking at one of his games that required good endgame technique, and also features one of his novelties in the opening. With that, let's take a look at the feature game.
W: Nezhmetdinov
B: Sedov
RSFSR Championship, Kuybyshev 1947
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Be7 6.Bd3 Ngf6
Now the normal moves here would be 7.Nxf6, 7.Ng3, or 7.Qe2. However, White plays an unusual move here that violates "general principles", but I think we have seen enough times already that you can almost throw general principles right out the window in the French Defense as the opening is a completely different beast compared to just about any other opening in all of chess, and that even goes for tame variations like the Rubinstein.
7.Ne5!?
White moves his Knight twice in the opening in an unprovoked situation (unlike say, the Bishop in the Ruy Lopez when it is actually attacked by Black's a-pawn), which is violation number one if you are following general opening principles, and with White having a space advantage, he is inviting Black to trade down to an endgame, which is violation number two, trading down pieces when you have a space advantage to alleviate the cramp for Black. All of that said, this may very well be an exception to the rule as Black is probably best off just ignoring White's offer and castling here. That said, Black takes up White's offer, and once Black decides to take the Knight, the rest of the sequence is a fairly forcing sequence.
7...Nxe5 8.dxe5 Nxe4 9.Bxe4 Qxd1+ 10.Kxd1 Bc5 11.Ke2 f5 12.Bf3
So now, we've traded a bunch of pieces including the Queens, the position is symmetrical, the material count is equal, and White should pack it in, offer a draw to Black and call it a day, right?
Uhm, no! As mentioned at move 7, Black should probably have ignored the offer by White and castle instead because while this position may look dull with the pawn symmetry, this is not equal, despite the fact that computers will say it is with the move Black plays next in this game, which is actually not best. Each side has one developed piece. However, the equality ends there. White undeveloped Bishop has far more scope than Black's. Black's Bishop can only go to d7, which impedes the open file on the board for Black's Rooks, which means the Bishop needs to move again. That's one extra move for White. Secondly, Black's King is still on the back rank. To connect the Rooks will take an extra move by Black, either lifting his King to the 7th rank, or else castling, but it doesn't make much sense to castle with the reduced material, but either way, there's a second extra move the Black needs to make, so it's like as if White has a two move advantage in the position. This two move advantage is not astronomical given the reduced material, and White only has a slight advantage, but the point is that the position is not equal, and Black can't be playing like it's equal. With that said, Black's next move does not help his cause.
12...Bd4
Black's top priority should be catching up in development. This is best done via 12...Bd7. Everyone talks about Queens capturing b-pawns as often being a bad idea. The same can be the case with reduced material as long as your opponent has at least one Rook on the board, and here, 13.Bxb7 would be bad for White after 13...Bb5+ 14.Ke1 Rb8 15.Bf3 Bd4 with a better position for Black and he will regain his pawn. Black is also ok after 14.Kf3. At first glance this appears to lose for White because 14...Rb8 traps the Bishop, but White has tactics to get out of it via 15.a4! Bd7 16.Ba6 Be4 17.Bb5 Bxb5 (17...Bxe5? 18.Re1!) 18.axb5 Rxb5 19.Rd1 Bxe5 20.Rxa7 Kf7 21.Rd7+ Kf6.
13.Bf4 Bd7
And now it's Black's turn to realize that 13...Bxb2 is a bad move because after 14.Rab1 Bc3 15.Bxb7 Bxb7 16.Rxb7 Ba5 17.Be3 Bb6 18.Bxb6, neither recapture by Black is good. 18...axb6 19.Rxc7 leaves White a pawn up as 19...Rxa2?? is answered by 20.Rc8+, and 18...cxb6 19.Rd1 gives White a winning advantage. For example, 19...Rc8 is answered by 20.c4 and again, Black can't capture on c4 due to the skewer on the back rank, and otherwise, White's Rooks are coming in.
14.c3 Bc5 15.b4
Now we see the problem with Black's 12th move. White gains time on the Bishop, and with no b-pawn hanging on the second rank, White is ready to take on b7.
15...Be7
15...Bb5+ just transposes back to the game after White's 17th move.
16.Bxb7 Bb5+ 17.Ke1
White still has the advantage with this move, but it may have been even better to play 17.Kf3, again due to the a4-trick. If 17...Rab8, then 18.a4! If not for that move, White's Bishop would be trapped. White probably either missed this idea, or else maybe thought the indirect Bishop trade didn't favor him. That said, the move played in the game is not bad by any means, just the disconnecting of the Rooks can be a bit of a nuisance for White.
17...Rd8
Now, with the b-pawn advanced to b4 and the f3-square available for the White Bishop, there is no point in attacking the Bishop with 17...Rb8 as all it would do is drive the White Bishop to a better square, and then there is nothing better for Black than to relocate the Rook to the d-file anyway, and so the move played in the game makes more sense.
18.a4 Bc4 19.Be3 a6 20.f4 Rd3
21.Kf2!
This is stronger than trying to hold the c-pawn, which turns out is not really a threat. 21.Bd4 is answered by 21...Bxb4 and even worse is 21.Bd2 as after 21...Kf7, it's actually Black that has the advantage with ...Rhd8 coming.
21...Kf7
If 21...Rxc3, then 22.Rhc1 Rxc1 23.Rxc1 followed by 24.Rxc7 continues to leave White a pawn up, and here with material reduced even further, making it be even closer to completely winning for White.
22.Bf3 Rhd8 23.Rhc1 c5
With no real way to improve on the position and still being down a pawn, Black goes into full throttle desperation mode, and sets up a nasty trap for White.
24.b5!
The trap was 24.bxc5?? Rxe3! and Black wins a piece as 25.Kxe3 Bxc5 is mate.
24...axb5 25.axb5 R3d7
25...Bxb5 can be answered by 26.Be2 Rd2 27.Bxd2 Rxd2 28.Re1 and after either 29.Ke3 or 29.Kf1 on the next move, Black does not get enough compensation for the exchange.
26.Be2 Bxe2 27.Kxe2 c4 28.Ra4 Rc8 29.b6 Bc5 30.Ra7 Rxa7 31.bxa7 1-0
Black resigned because after 31...Bxe3 32.Kxe3 Ra8 33.Ra1, the c-pawn is about to fall and White wins.
A number of things can be picked up from this game:
- Opening priciples don't always apply in the French Defense. This is why it is encouraged by many higher rated players on chess forums, such as chess.com, for players to first learn the Ruy Lopez and Queen's Gambit, because they are the openings that pretty much follow priciples to the letter. After you learn the basics of opening play, and are ready to expand the repertoire, the French is an excellent place to start because of the limited number of variations to learn unlike other openings such as the Sicilian.
- When your opponent tries to provoke you into doing something, there is likely a reason behind it. Before you automatically bite, calculate and figure out the specifics of the situation. In the game we looked at, White provoked Black into a trade down, which under normal circumstances, Black should do because of his lack of space, but in this case, we saw that the resulting position after the forcing sequence saw Black with the more difficult task of getting the undeveloped Bishop out and that his King was still on the back rank, allowing White to connect Rooks faster, and so here, it would have been best for Black to just castle on move 7.
- When your opponent poses a threat, or what appears to be a threat, always try to see if you can ignore it first. For example, the threat on b7 on move 12 should have been ignored by Black and he should have played 12...Bd7 since 13.Bxb7 lead to at minimum an ok position for Black. In essence, Black's 12th move is what put him behind the 8-ball. The b2-pawn couldn't be taken by Black on move 13 due to tactics and infiltration by White. The same can be said about taking the c-pawn on Blacks 21st move. Not only does the player that can take these Pawns have to realize that they are poisonous, but the player who owns the Pawn has to also realize that their opponent can't take them. If they don't realize this, they will spend useless time defending something that doesn't need to be defended. This requires one very important skill, and that is the ability to calculate. If calculation is a weakness of yours, I highly recommend reading "The Inner Game of Chess" by Andrew Soltis.
Well, that concludes this edition of The French Connection. Good luck in all of your French Games, Black or White.
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