Long Names...Part 2

Last week we saw the beginning of a game between two players with super long names: Polugaevsky and Nezhmetdinov. Both were warriors - Rashid Nezhmetdinov was only allowed to play outside of his own country once, but he traveled from tournament to tournament and played great games; Polugaevsky on the other hand was world famous. But in this game it was the less famous player who has got the advantage.

Nezhmetdinov's queen has broken through to White's kingside castled position. The white king has been chased out. But if the king gets away, Black will lose his object of attack! Right now, Black's queen is under attack, and if it moves he loses his bishop. Meanwhile the white king is about to retreat to d2, c1...and "castle by hand" on the opposite side.

To prevent this from happening, it was essential that Nezhmetdinov break open his dark squared bishop on h6. That was the origin of his next brilliant move.

 

Nezhmetdinov has managed to keep the white king from escaping to safety. Instead, it is stuck in the very middle of the board, without a single legal move. The white king is - in fact - stalemated. This does not mean the position is stalemate, since White has many other pieces which can move; but it does mean that one check could be checkmate! To achieve this, Black has had to pay a small price - his queen.

Normally, when you sacrifice so much material, you have to really hurry. You have to play forcing moves - checks and captures. After all, if your threats are not strong enough, your opponent will escape from the danger and you will just be down a queen!

This is what makes Nezhmetdinov's next move much more amazing. Instead of a check or a capture, he makes a one-square bishop move. But he sets up a deadly discovered check, and despite a free move, White cannot escape. 

 

You don't see a game like this every day!