Prophylactic

Hi,

Love the site. However, when did the term prophylactic become prominent in the chess community.  Why not use defensive instead.  

Am I just getting old ?!!!!!!

It's not the same thing. Prophylactic means that you're doing something to counteract your opponent's future plans. Defensive means you're doing something to counteract your opponent's current plans.

Mmm..my dictionary says : defensive : devoted to resisting or preventing aggression or attack <defensive behavior> b : of or relating to the attempt to keep an opponent from scoring in a game or contest.

My observation stands - I just think its a really ugly word

How old are you the term's been around since the 1920s when Nimzowitsch wrote the classic "My System"

Prophylaxis as Nimzowitsch used it is sometimes misunderstood.  It deals with stopping your opponent's plan before it starts.  But also it's the idea that you're bringing your pieces in contact with important points, and simply through that contact do they gain value.  One logical idea behind this is that over protection grants each defender the freedom to move away and thus increases mobility.

Put your dictionary down, listen to Ozzie.... he knows what he's talking about and puts it rather well.

And here I was, about to go get my own dictionary to look up the word I "defined".

Perhaps the way I defined it is specific to chess. Look for the meaning in the word, too. Defensive is a "bad" word. You shouldn't strive to play defensive chess. But prophylactic is a "good" word. It is important to learn how to play this way. (Of course defense is important too, but that is a curious choice for one's "chess style"). If you're a master of prophylactic chess, then your opponents will never really be comfortable. The plan they would like to play will just play into whatever moves you've made, and eventually they'll make a mistake. Here's a good example, from one of the masters of this type of chess.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1068393

The game is very difficult to understand without annotations.

The comment from Jul-31-05 is instructive.

"I believe that this is the famous Karpov<prophylactic> game in which he simply refuses to allow Black to carry out his intended ... a5-c4 maneuver. Black gets flustered by his inability to execute this plan, blunders a pawn, and then has to lauch a kamikaze attack on the White king which fails."

Hi thanks for the posts guys - just a bit of fun.

Orangehonda : re my age - Am older than I'd like to be!!!!

Was thinking of starting a plain English(American) campaign, which I suppose is a bit rich for an Irishman!!!!

Prophylactic in its ordinary meaning means preventative.  So if I am a master of preventative chess.........