Nezhmetdinov Rashid Gibatovich (15.12.1912 – 03.06.1974)

Nezhmetdinov-Rashid-GibatovSoviet chess and draughts player, the only Master of Sports in Chess 1950 and Draughts 1949, International Master 1954. He was the coach of the Soviet team during the period of 1948-74 but was not allowed to travel abroad until his 40’s.

Five times was the winner of the Kazan championships and of the Russian federation championships. Nezhmetdinov died in 1974, after having defeated many strong players during his career, including Mikhail Tal several times, Lev Polugaevsky, Boris Spassky, David Bronstein, Efim Geller, Isaac Boleslavsky, etc…

His best results in the international tournaments were: Bucharest 1954, 2nd; Rostov-on-Don 1961, 2nd-3rd; Baku 1964, 3rd

Author of Шахматы (published in 1985).  A memorial tournament is regularly organised in Kazan.

One of the greatest tacticians who ever played the game according to Soviets experts, and Mikhail Botvinnik said, “Nobody sees combinations like Rashid Nezhmetdinov.”  Lev Polugaevsky said that Nezhmetdinov was “the greatest master of the initiative“. Tal was so impressed with Nezhmetdinov that he chose him as his trainer for his World Championship match with Mikhail Botvinnik.