Polugaevsky v Nezhmetdinov, Sochi 1958: Nezhmetdinov's Immortal

Rashid Nezhmetdinov never became a grandmaster, but he had a plus score against Mikhail Tal, and Mikhail Botvinnik said that nobody saw combinations the way he did. He played this game against Lev Polugaevsky at Sochi in the 1958 Russian Championship, which he won, his fifth Russian title. It is known as Nezhmetdinov's Immortal and is counted among the best attacking games of the 20th century. Polugaevsky recalled realising, after long thought, that he was losing a game that would be published everywhere.

Black to move after 24.Rh1. Nezhmetdinov's next move leaves his queen to be taken.

The whole game

Polugaevsky v Nezhmetdinov, Sochi 1958. Step through all 33 moves; White resigned.

The opening is an Old Indian Defence. Black's queen goes to h4 early, and Black's pieces gather on the kingside.

What Stockfish makes of it

We had Stockfish check every move.

Moves 11 to 13: chances missed on both sides

White to move after 10...Qh4. 11.g3 keeps the balance; 11.Ng3 doesn't.

The game was full of chances early on. Polugaevsky's 11.Ng3 let Black take the advantage: Stockfish prefers 11.g3, about level, against more than two pawns better for Black after 11.Ng3. Nezhmetdinov missed it, playing 11...Nge5, where 11...f5 would have kept that advantage. Then 13.f3 gave Black the better game again; 13.exf5 would have kept it level.

19...Be6 and 20.Bc2

19.f4 Be6 20.Bc2: White declines the bait, and goes wrong.

19...Be6 leaves the c7 pawn to be taken: the tempting 20.Nxc7 is met by 20...Rxf4!!, as The Scotsman's columnist showed. Stockfish rates the position level after 19...Be6, and the right answer was 20.Bxe5, keeping it level. 20.Bc2 was the losing moment, as chessentials.com put it: after it Black is about one and a half pawns better.

24...Rxf4!!: the queen sacrifice

24...Rxf4!! 25.Rxh2 Rf3+ 26.Kd4 Bg7: Black has given up his queen, and White's king is in the middle of the board.

24.Rh1, attacking the queen, was what The Scotsman's columnist called the fatal error: it wins material but loses the game. Stockfish agrees: 24.a3 would have kept the position about level. Nezhmetdinov answered with 24...Rxf4!!, letting his queen go. It was the only winning move: Stockfish rates Black more than two and a half pawns better after it, while the obvious 24...Nxc2+ would have left White better by about the same amount. 25...Rf3+ was also the only good move.

The Scotsman's columnist thought 26...c5+ an easier way to win; Stockfish prefers the game move, 26...Bg7.

The king hunt

27.a4 c5+ 28.dxc6 bxc6 29.Bd3 Nexd3+ 30.Kc4 d5+ 31.exd5 cxd5+ 32.Kb5 Rb8+ 33.Ka5 Nc6+: White resigned, with mate next move.

27.a4 allowed a forced mate. 27.Ng1 would have resisted longer, but Black wins either way. After 33...Nc6+ the mate is 34.Ka6 Ndb4#, and Polugaevsky resigned.

How we checked

The moves are from Wikipedia's page on Rashid Nezhmetdinov, a chess column in The Scotsman and chessentials.com, which agree. We replayed every move with python-chess: all are legal.
The engine: Stockfish 16.1 checked every move at depth 22, and the key moments again at depth 26. "A pawn better" is Stockfish's measure of the position, not a count of material.
The history and the named opinions are from Wikipedia, The Scotsman, chessentials.com, ChessBase and Dominic Lawson's article in Standpoint.

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