Rashid Nezhmetdinov (1912-74) is not widely known in the West, but two recent books hope to change this situation. Super Nezh by Alex Pishkin was reviewed in a previous column, but will be compared here with Caissa Editions' latest offering as many readers will no doubt wonder which is the book to get. Nezhmetdinov's games have always enjoyed a great reputation among connoisseurs of attacking play. No less a giant than Tal praised the famous little purple book edition of Nezhmetdinov's games that sold out in the Soviet Union long ago. This is the first time it has been translated into English.

Like Super Nezh, Nezhmetdinov's Best Games of Chess contains approximately 100 of the Tartar's best games, but with the distinction that it contains his own annotations (a few near the end are commented by Voloshin), whereas Super Nezh saw Pishkin base his notes on Nezhmetdinov, but also draw from other sources.

Each book, not surprisingly, features many of the same games, with detailed notes. Nezhmetdinov's Best Games of Chess has the great man's own personal account of his career which is quite fascinating and makes for compelling reading. Super Nezh has more of an overview by Pishkin, but also has a stimulating introduction by IM Rashid Ziatdinov who, like Nezhmetdinov, is of Tartar descent.

Super Nezh has some outstanding photos of Soviet chess personalities of the 1950s and crosstables of important events (the layout of the latter takes a little getting use to). Nezhmetdinov's Best Games of Chess doesn't have either of these attributes, but it appears to be the more accurate of the two books. I'm no Nezhmetdinov scholar, but did notice that the date and event for Langeweg-Nezhmetdinov is given as Kislovodsk 1972 by Nezhmetdinov's Best Games of Chess and Sochi 1964 by Super Nezh. Chess Informant 14 and ChessBase MegaDatabase 2002 side with Nezhmetdinov's Best Games of Chess as to year and venue. This mix-up may have occurred because Mr. Pishkin died before his book was ready for publication. Both books feature detailed players' indexes and career records. Super Nezh adds thumb-nail sketches of Nezhmetdinov's opponents, but doesn't go quite as far back nor is as accurate in documenting the Tartar's tournament record ( it does list the Kislovodsk event that Langeweg played in, but for 1970 and not 1972). Nezhmetdinov's Best Games of Chess benefits from the editing of Russian chess maven Jack O'Keefe, who has made sure that the book reads smoothly and accurately. The inclusion of analysis by Fritz 6 (assisted by Richard Cantwell) is given alongside Nezhmetdinov's annotations. That computers still can't fathom some of the Tartar's famous combinations will come as a relief to many. Still, this reviewer can't help but cringe a bit when he sees the games of attacking players like Tal and Nezhmetdinov subjected to the cold objectivity of computer analysis!

Lovers of imaginative chess can be very happy that two fine books are now available on one of the greatest attacking geniuses of all time. Neither is perfect, but both will give lovers of high quality chess many hours of pleasure.