HoF #50: Nimzowitsch–"The Stormy Petrel"
This blog is a celebration that leverages an outstanding concept of GMs Nielsen and Gustafsson (both of whom are also popular chessable.com authors) but offers my unique take. The two GMs produced videos and multiple lessons regarding their top 50 chess players of all time. Although I provide a link to their work below, my focus is a bit different, though I freely accept their rankings.
How does my work differ? Well, first off, I'm not a titled player. Second, rather than videos and puzzles, I offer: brief biographies of each player; limited discussion and pictures of some of their works if they wrote; and quotes from those who proved to be eminently quotable. Third, well, I also may have found occasion to add quotes from other famous chess names regarding certain individuals and perhaps even the occasional caricature😏. Fourth and last, to the extent possible I will include two games analyzed by the individual. After all, the greatest of the great should be able to explain what they were thinking during a game, shouldn't they? (Spoiler alert: perhaps.)
We start with #50. I hope you enjoy my alternative, much shorter takes. Certainly, I enjoin you to visit the work of GMs Nielsen and Gustafsson (both on chess.com and chessable.com).
Table of Contents
Biography
#50 chess.com Hall of Fame: Aron Nimzowitsch
Aron Nimzowitsch (Latvian: Ārons Nimcovičs; Russian: Аро́н Иса́евич Нимцо́вич) was born in Riga, Latvia on 7 November 1886, but played and wrote as a Danish (corrected when I finally realized what people were telling me) GM and was a two-time Nordic CC. ChessMetrics estimates his peak rating at 2780 in September 1929, placing him at #3 globally. One of the great personalities in chess history, his best playing years were in the late 1920s, although he had achieved early success as seen in a tie for first with Alekhine at St. Petersburg 1914.
He is well-known as one of the leading practitioners of hypermodernism, and some deign to nominate him as the founder.
As a writer Nimzo earned eternal fame as the author of Mein System (My System), Die Praxis meines Systems (literally The Practice of My System but generally known as Chess Praxis), and Die Blockade (The Blockade). The last book is considered largely a reiteration of material from Mein System. Guess I'm glad I didn't buy that third book!
Nimzowitsch also endlessly attacked Siegbert Tarrasch for the latter’s "overly orthodox to the core" strategic principles of chess. Eventually, however, Nimzowitsch himself succumbed to the peril of adhering too closely to one’s principles and could be quite as dogmatic as Tarrasch, forgetting that every situation should be approached on its own merits. We'll hear some more about that in the quotes of other players.
Multiple openings and variations are credited to him, the most enduring and famous, imo, being the Nimzo-Indian Defense.
Nimzowitsch is the cheeky author of quotes such as seen below. This stuff gets ground into our brains by chess coaches, books, itinerant poseurs who pretend to have mastered the game, the internet, and even our friends who gave up the game years ago but still can't dredge these ideas out of their thick skulls (me amongst them...partially...not the giving up part, the thickness).
The threat is stronger than the execution.
The isolated Pawn casts gloom over the entire chessboard.
First restrain, next blockade, lastly destroy.
How can I lose to such an idiot? [I got in a spot of trouble once with a high school teacher for using this line. Clearly this educator had no respect for history.]
Even the laziest King flees wildly in the face of a double check!
In the middlegame, the king is merely an extra, but in the endgame, he is one of the star actors.
The defensive power of a pinned piece is only imaginary.
No pawn exchanges, no file-opening, no attack.
The main objective of any operation in an open file is the eventual occupation of the seventh or eighth rank.
And now, let's hear a few comments from the other side!
We believe that his strength is his weakness; he plays such bizarre openings and such complicated games that very often he is just as much puzzled as his opponent, if not more so, as to the best course to follow. Capablanca (NYT, Sports section, 02-16-27)
As far as Nimzowitsch is concerned, you know as well as I do that he, notwithstanding his fairly good results, is hardly a real grandmaster, so that I am really surprised that people make such a ridiculous fuss over him of late. Letter from Bogoljubow to Capablanca, 7 December 1926. Aron Nimzowitsch by Edward Winter
For nearly twenty years Nimzowitsch has been the stormy petrel of the chess world. Philip Hereford, translator of My System, the first sentence of the Translator's Preface. (It's on my shelves and was easy to find.)
A feeble, illogical eccentricity, typical of Nimzowitsch’s play. commentary by Fairhurst regarding Nimzowitsch's 6th move in a game against Koch, Chess Amateur, May 1928 (pages 244-245) Aron Nimzowitsch by Edward Winter.
Given these are fifty of the greatest players of all time, how were they as annotators? Well, for those who wrote books we could truly explore that question in depth. But to keep the playing field even, I am only including a game or two taken from a DB or website. If such are available, as I've already discovered several left few traces of their thinking. Besides, I didn't want to burden myself with transcribing comments from a book into a pgn file. Or increase my debt burden by buying books of those who did not yet offer free access to books released to the public domain. Besides, it is far easier and faster to look for annotated games in an online database.
Below we can ponder two games that Nimzowitsch analyzed based on precepts from My System.
Nimzowitsch, Aron - Freiman, Sergey Nikolaevich, All Russian Masters-02, 09.1912
Here is Nimzowitsch's summary of what he deemed the key aspect of the game: "What interests in this game is above all the role which the knight at f4 has played. As a blockader he was strongly posted and excellently supported (by the bishop at h2). Again, he had a crippling effect on Black's bishop at g7 and rook at h6, etc. Further, his "threat effect" was considerable, particularly on the points d5 and e6. (The mobility of White's e-pawn affords a piquant antithesis to the immobility of Black's pawn at f5.) And lastly, his elasticity was striking, for he could composedly go on his travels, leaving the bishop to take his place."
The whole purpose of this section is to address some obvious questions that might pop into your head. How come Kevin didn't talk about this? Or that? Not to mention the other thing! Well, just call me lazy! Or you could appreciate the fact I'm limiting the word count that is imposed on you😏. Nonetheless, in the series I'll be using this little section to provide links to more fulsome discussions that revolve around both well-known and lesser-known facets of the featured chess giant. That will range from videos to links to other chess.com blogs, usually by Top Bloggers. Enjoy or skip, it's your call, as always.
GM Finegold is always good for some fun and insightful discussion. Here he discusses the opening that starts with 1.b3. There is a brief ad up front, but so it goes.
Here GM Wesley So presents a chessable.com video on the Nimzowitsch Defense!
Next, let's look at a video by @agadmator's video on Nimzowitsch's "Immortal Zugzwang Game!" Nothing better than "You must move!" Well, metaphorically resignation involves tipping the king over, so even throwing up one's hands in disgust, shaking hands, and signing the scoresheet constitutes a move, even if there is no visible change on the board.
Finally, it's time to look at the most famous parody of a player's thinking ever. In the February 1928 issue of the Wiener Schachzeitung magazine under the editorship of Hans Kmoch a hilarious take was made on Nimso's overprotection. For your amusement, here is @agadmator's video on that game that would have made a fine April Fools joke.
That's it for the first installment of my own take on chess.com's 50 greatest players of all time. Hope you enjoyed the blog.
If you enjoy reading "greatest of" lists, then you might also enjoy chess.com's Every Chess 'Player Of The Decade' (From Morphy To Magnus).
Cheers!
Sources for the information in this series included chess.com, wikipedia.com, ChessBase, ChessMetrics, FIDE, individuals' websites, YouTube.com, news articles, books, and other sources including A-Z Quotes | Quotes for All Occasions. Plus, my faulty memories. I mixed, matched, cut, and pasted so much that separation is implausible. Particularly with quotes which are found in a thousand repositories, not to mention book covers, t-shirts, and the rantings of chess coaches of whom I've had more than a few thanks to Chess University and @AttilaTurzo (my primary instructor and co-author of a book we are writing on how to analyze during a game and afterwards.)
