Nenarokov was among the Masters who came to the fore in the days before the Russian Revolution. Others were Grigoriev, Duz-Chotimirsy, Ilyin-Zhenevsky, I, and A. Rabinowicz and Romanovsky.
He began playing at the age of 14, but even though he was born in Moscow he did not have the opportunity to face strong opposition and so he hooned his skill by analyzed the games of masters and studying theory.
He first appeared in the Moscow Chess Club in 1898. He wanted to enter a tournament for the club championship, but being an unknown, he asked the club managers if they would evaluate his strength. He ended up defeating Third (Elo 1750-1875), Second (Elo 1875-2000) and First (Elo 2000-2150) Category players. Then a well known local Master gave Nenarokov an f-Pawn handicap and Nenarokov won that game, too.
In September of 1899, he made his debut in a major event, the First All-Russian Tournament, held in Moscow. Chigorin won the event and Nenarokov tied for 6th-7th. He continued to make rapid progress and played in the Second All-Russian Tournament in 1900-1901 and did quite well. The top finishers were Chigorin, Shiffers, Janowsky, Goncharov and Nenarokov.
In 1908 the 16 year old Alekhine challenged Nenarokov, then city champion, to a match, but Alekhine was not ready to meet such a strong player and after losing three games in a row, he abandoned the match. Since 1959 there has been a spurious game, Alekhine-Nenarokov, floating around that first made print in a letter to the editor in Chess Review. Edward Winter's site has complete details on the hoax HERE.
Nenarokov played in many other big tournaments held in Russia before the Revolution and scored excellent results. He competed in USSR Championships in 1923, 1924 and 1927.
He played in the great tournament at St. Petersburg in 1909, or rather he started to play. There were actually 22 players at the start of the tournament, but a player named Goldfarb withdrew because of illness and another named Rozanov withdrew because urgent family matters forced him to return to his home in Moscow. For unknown reasons. Nenarokov withdrew without informing the tournament director. The games of all three were not counted.
The following game was played in the 1924 USSR Championship which was a great success for Bogoljubow. The tournament started out as a real horse race when Bogoljubow won his first eight games and Romanovsky, the defending champion, scored 7.5 in his first eight game. Romanovsky kept pace with Bogoljubow until round 13, but then he began to fade.
Nenarokov spent the last years of his life living in Ashkhabad, the capital city of the Soviet Republic of Turkmenistan on the Eastern coast of the Caspian Sea. During that time he was active with the local chess organization.
About the Stonewall: I have a book on the Stonewall by an author who shall remain nameless. One reviewer described this author's books as notoriously rife with factual errors, junk, filled with inane comments, dull and worthless, filled with useless trivia, wasted ink, atrocious, a very poor writer and ridiculous...and that describes just one of his books! That's a bit harsh; the poor guy's books aren't THAT bad. I have a couple and actually kind of enjoy them.
At the beginning of his book on the Stonewall he says it is one of the easiest openings to play and yet it's also one of the rarest at the Master level and while it was once popular, it doesn't enjoy a very good reputation these days.
There's a reason you don't see top level GMs playing the Stonewall. The author tries to prove the Stonewall is worth playing, but I noticed he put the best defense at the end of the book and didn't devote nearly as much time to them as he did the variations where black cooperates by allowing white his typical Stonewall setup.
When black fianchettoes on the K-side and white proceeds with the standard setup he will get nothing because the standard attacking ideas are no longer feasible. Therefore, if black fianchettoes white is advised to abandon the Stonewall and choose another strategy.
Among amateurs the Stonewall is no better or no worse than, say, the Najdorf Sicilian, because we amateurs play crappy chess no matter what the opening is. The truth is we rating challenged masses can play the Stonewall, but don't expect it, or any opening, to automatically chalk up a lot of wins. To do that you have to play better than your opponent in more areas than just the opening.
[Event "USSR Championship, Moscow"] [Site ""] [Date "1924.09.??"] [Round "8"] [White "Vladimir Nenarokov"] [Black "Andrey Smorodsky"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "D00"] [Annotator "PlentyChess"] [PlyCount "61"] [EventDate "1924.??.??"] {D00: 1 d4 d5: Unusual lines} 1. d4 d5 2. e3 Nf6 3. Bd3 Nbd7 4. f4 c5 {Along with 4...e5 this is the most popular, but not the best line. 4...g6 is the counter-Stonewall!} 5. c3 e6 6. Nd2 {This prevents the black N from going to e4.} Bd6 7. Qf3 {A playable alternative is 7.Nh3 hoping to get in Ng5} (7. Ngf3 cxd4 8. cxd4 O-O 9. O-O b6 10. Ne5 Bb7 11. Qf3 {is equal. Bendana,G (2090) -Binks,M (2100) Elista 1998}) 7... Qc7 8. Nh3 {8.g4 looks more dangerous than it really is because black can adequately defend himself. This advance is more likely to succeed if black has already castled.} Nb6 (8... h6 9. g4 Nb6 10. g5 hxg5 11. Nxg5 {favors black; he will simply castle Q-side.}) 9. a4 Bd7 10. a5 Nc8 {Smorodsky is going to waste a lot of time with this N, but as proof that white does not have any real attacking prospects, the time consuming N maneuver does not hurt his position in the least.} 11. O-O Ne7 12. Kh1 h5 13. Ng5 Nc6 {Black has taken 5 moves to get this N where it could have been in one, but it is one N move too many. On e7 the N serves the dunction of defending the K-side. A better plan was ...a6, ...cxd4 and ...O-O.} 14. dxc5 {Here or on the next move white could have played e3-e4.} Bxc5 15. b4 Be7 16. e4 {In spite of all the fiddling around on black''s part, white’s position has not yet reached the place where it’s overwhelming. However, black has a problem finding a completely safe safe haven for his K.} e5 {This move, opening up the position with his K in the center is a serios mistake. The ...a6 idea was still his best option.} 17. f5 {While not bad, this keeps the position closed, but now was a good time to rip it open with 17.exd5} (17. exd5 Bg4 18. Qf2 Nxd5 19. Bc4 Bxg5 20. fxg5 Be6 21. Ne4 {Black's K is in daner no mater where it gores.}) 17... d4 18. b5 Nxa5 19. cxd4 Ng4 20. b6 (20. Nxf7 {was quite playable, but itt would be difficult to calculate the consequences.} Kxf7 21. Qg3 Rac8 22. Nf3 Nc4 23. h3 Kg8 (23... Nh6 24. Bxc4+ Qxc4 25. Nxe5+) 24. dxe5 Ncxe5 25. Bf4 Bf6 26. Rac1 Qd6 {with unclear complications.}) 20... Qxb6 $11 21. Nc4 Nxc4 22. Bxc4 Bxg5 23. Bxg5 {It’s surprising, but in this position black’s defenses are adequate and there is no forcing win for white if black now plays the seemingly weakening 23...f6.} Rc8 (23... f6 24. Bh4 exd4 { White has no attack and the chances are even.}) 24. Bd5 exd4 25. Rfb1 {As almost always this is the wrong R} (25. Rab1 Qc7 {Threatening mate on h2} 26. Bf4 Qc3 27. Rxb7 {and white is clearly better.}) 25... Bb5 {This loses.} (25... Qc7 26. Bf4 Qc3 {White cannot capture the b-Pawn because the R on a1 is undefended.} 27. Rxa7 Ne3 28. Bxe3 {The N is too well placed and must therefore be eliminated.} (28. Raxb7 Qc1+ 29. Qf1 Qxf1+ 30. Rxf1 Nxf1 {Black is a R up.}) 28... Qxe3 29. Qxe3 dxe3 30. Raxb7 {with complete equality.}) 26. Qb3 {[%mdl 128] White now has a won position and finisdhes up forcefully. actical blows.} a6 27. Bxf7+ Kf8 28. Bg6 Qc7 29. Bf4 {[%mdl 512]} Qc4 (29... Qe7 30. Bd6 Bc4 31. Bxe7+ Kxe7 32. Qxb7+) 30. Rc1 {[%mdl 512]} Qxb3 {[%mdl 8192] This allows a mate in three, but he was lost in any case.} 31. Bd6+ { Black resigned.} (31. Bd6+ Kg8 32. Rxc8+ Be8 33. Rxe8#) 1-0
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