Why wasn’t Rashid Nezhmetdinov a grandmaster? He won the Russian championship 5 times, so why wasn’t he a grandmaster?
Rashid Nezhmetdinov, aka “Super Nezh”, was clearly GM strength, having a plus score in the 20 games he played against World Champions, including a plus score against his friend, Tal. He was also a five-time Russian champion (this title predates the Soviet Union, and is not the same as champion of the Soviet Union).

I was a Russian linguist in the Air Force during the cold war (1980-1988), and all of my Russian teachers were “off the boat” as they say, meaning they were natives of the Soviet Union, so we heard many stories about life there, and Nezhmetdinov’s story is not uncommon: Lack of favor.

During his peak years, Nezhmetdinov only managed to play outside of the Soviet Union one time, and he finished second to Korchnoi at Bucharest 1954, which again showed that he was strong enough to be a GM. Unfortunately, strength is not the only factor in getting a title. FIDE has long had in place title rules that were designed to make sure that federations could not manipulate titles, thus you have to play x-number of other titled players, and x-number of players from other countries. So, back then, it was harder to get titles because there were not as many titled players as there are today.

Typically, in the Soviet Union, there were also “favorites”, and they were people, who were Communist Party members, or related to those, who were. If you were not a favorite, you could not travel abroad freely as you can today, and they lived behind what was called “The Iron Curtain”. The Party also worried a lot about players defecting, so in essence, your whole country was a prison of sorts. There were exceptions, who were not Party members, but who were so talented that they could bring the Party great favor and prestige, especially when it made the West look bad. Nevertheless, I read somewhere that Nezhmetdinov was a low-level party member, but he was also not a prodigy as were the Tals and Spasskys of the time.  As great as Rashid Nezhmetdinov was, he had huge flaws in his game, and thus, he would probably never become World Champion, and the top chess players knew it, and thus, the Party did not favor him. If you were not given the opportunity, you cannot succeed. He was also an ethnic minority, a Tatar, which also surely played a role in this.

Personally, I would love it if FIDE would posthumously award Nezhmetdinov the Grandmaster title. He is easily the best player ever not to get the title, during the era of titles. I have since written an email to FIDE President, Arkady Dvorkovich, regarding the possibility of posthumously awarding Rashid Nezhmetdinov the GM title. 

For anyone, who does not know of Super Nezh, I suggest you search for some of his games. He has what might be the greatest queen sacrifice ever.

I was asked in comments why black resigned after 33. Ke2, so I added a sample line just showing where to put the white pieces, and how that will eventually lead to an easy win, and Chernikov knew it.

 [Event "Rostov on Don"]
 [Site "Rostov on Don"]
 [Date "1962.??.??"]
 [Round "?"]
 [White "Nezhmetdinov, Rashid"]
 [Black "Chernikov, Oleg L"]
 [Result "1-0"]
 [ECO "B35"]
 [PlyCount "65"]
 [EventDate "1962.??.??"]
 [EventType "game"]
 [EventRounds "1"]
 [EventCountry "URS"]
 [FEN ""]

 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Bc4 O-O 8. Bb3 Ng4 9. Qxg4 Nxd4 10. Qh4 Qa5 11. O-O Bf6 12. Qxf6 Ne2+ 13. Nxe2 exf6 14. Nc3 Re8 15. Nd5 Re6 16. Bd4 Kg7 17. Rad1 d6 18. Rd3 Bd7 19. Rf3 Bb5 20. Bc3 Qd8 21. Nxf6 Be2 22. Nxh7+ Kg8 23. Rh3 Re5 24. f4 Bxf1 25. Kxf1 Rc8 26. Bd4 b5 27. Ng5 Rc7 28. Bxf7+ Rxf7 29. Rh8+ Kxh8 30. Nxf7+ Kh7 31. Nxd8 Rxe4 32. Nc6 Rxf4+ 33. Ke2 (33. Ke2 a6 34. c3 Rf7 35. Nb4 a5 36. Nc6 a4 37. a3 Kg8 38. Be3 Kf8 39. Nd4 Rb7 40. h4 Ke7 41. Bf4 d5 42. g3 Kf6 43. Kd3 Rb6 44. Bg5+ Ke5 45. Nf3+ Ke6 46. Kd4 Rb8 47. Ne5 Rg8 48. Bf4+- {and Kc5 next wins}) 1-0