Aron Nimzowitsch

Aron Nimzowitsch (Latvian: rons imcovis, Russian:

, Aron Isayevich Nimtsovich;
born Aron Niemzowitsch;[1] 7 November 1886 16
March 1935) was a Russian-born, Danish leading chess
master[2] and a very inuential chess writer. He was the
foremost gure amongst the hypermoderns.

ment. Nimzowitsch never developed a knack for match

play, though; his best match success was a draw with
Alekhine, but the match consisted of only two games and
took place in 1914, thirteen years before Alekhine became world champion.

Nimzowitsch never beat Capablanca, but fared better

against Alekhine. He even beat Alekhine with the black
pieces, in their short 1914 match at St. Petersburg. One
of Nimzowitschs most famous games is his celebrated
1 Life
immortal zugzwang game against Smisch at Copenhagen
1923. Another game on this theme is his win over Paul
Born in part of the Russian Empire, the Jewish GermanJohner at Dresden 1926. When in form, Nimzowitsch
speaking Nimzowitsch came from a wealthy family,
was very dangerous with the black pieces, scoring many
where he learned chess from his father, who was a merne wins over top players.
chant. In 1904, he travelled to Berlin to study philosophy,
but set aside his studies soon and began a career as a
professional chess player that same year. He won his
rst international tournament at Munich 1906.[3] Then,
3 Legacy
he tied for rst with Alexander Alekhine at St. Petersburg
1913/14 (the eighth All-Russian Masters Tournament).
Nimzowitsch is considered one of the most important
During the 1917 Russian Revolution, Nimzowitsch was
players and writers in chess history. His works inuin the Baltic war zone. He escaped being drafted into
enced numerous other players, including Savielly Tarone of the armies by feigning madness, insisting that a
takower, Milan Vidmar, Richard Rti, Akiba Rubinstein,
y was on his head. He then escaped to Berlin, and gave
Bent Larsen and Tigran Petrosian, and his inuence is still
his rst name as Arnold, possibly to avoid anti-Semitic
felt today.
persecution.[4]
He wrote three books on chess strategy: Mein System (My
Nimzowitsch eventually moved to Copenhagen in
System), 1925, Die Praxis meines Systems (The Practice of
1922,[5] which coincided with his rise to the world
My System), 1929, commonly known as Chess Praxis, and
chess elite, where he lived for the rest of his life in one
Die Blockade (The Blockade), 1925, though much in the
small rented room.[6] In Copenhagen, he twice won the
latter book is generally held to be a rehash of material
Nordic Chess Championship, in 1924 and 1934. He
already presented in Mein System. Mein System is considobtained Danish citizenship and lived in Denmark until
ered to be one of the most inuential chess books of all
his death in 1935. Although he had long suered from
time.[10] It sets out Nimzowitschs most important ideas,
heart trouble, his early death was unexpected; taken ill
while his second most inuential work, Chess Praxis,
suddenly at the end of 1934, he lay bedridden for three
elaborates upon these ideas, adds a few new ones, and
months before dying of pneumonia.[7] He is buried in
has immense value as a stimulating collection of NimBispebjerg Cemetery in Copenhagen.[8]
zowitschs own games accompanied by his idiosyncratic,
hyperbolic commentary which is often as entertaining as
instructive.

Chess career

Nimzowitschs chess theories, when rst propounded ew

in the face of widely held orthodoxies enunciated by the
dominant theorist of the era, Siegbert Tarrasch, and his
disciples. Tarraschs rigid generalizations drew on the
earlier work of Wilhelm Steinitz, and were upheld by
Tarraschs sharp tongue when dismissing the opinions of
doubters. While the greatest players of the time, among
them Alekhine, Emanuel Lasker and Capablanca, clearly
did not allow their play to be hobbled by blind adherence to general concepts that the center had to be con-

The height of Nimzowitschs career was the late 1920s

and early 1930s. Chessmetrics places him as the third
best player in the world from 1927 to 1931, behind
Alexander Alekhine and Jos Capablanca.[9] His most notable successes were rst-place nishes at Copenhagen
1923, Marienbad 1925, Dresden 1926, Hanover 1926,
the Carlsbad 1929 chess tournament, and second place
behind Alekhine at the San Remo 1930 chess tourna1

4 PERSONALITY

trolled by pawns, that development had to happen in sup- Chapter 11 of his recent book Mastering the Chess Openport of this control, that rooks always belong on open ings, Volume 3.[14]
les, that wing openings were unsoundcore ideas of
Tarraschs chess philosophy as popularly understood
beginners were taught to think of these generalizations
4 Personality
as unalterable principles.
Nimzowitsch supplemented many of the earlier simplistic assumptions about chess strategy by enunciating in his
turn a further number of general concepts of defensive
play aimed at achieving ones own goals by preventing
realization of the opponents plans. Notable in his system were concepts such as overprotection of pieces and
pawns under attack, control of the center by pieces instead of pawns, blockading of opposing pieces (notably
the passed pawns) and prophylaxis. He was also a leading exponent of the anchetto development of bishops.
Perhaps most importantly, he formulated the terminology still in use for various complex chess strategies. Others had used these ideas in practice, but he was the rst
to present them systematically as a lexicon of themes accompanied by extensive taxonomical observations.

There are many entertaining anecdotes regarding

Nimzowitschsome less savory than others. An article
by Hans Kmoch and Fred Reinfeld entitled Unconventional Surrender on page 55 of the February 1950
Chess Review tells of the "... example of Nimzowitsch,
who ... once missed rst prize in a tournament in Berlin
by losing to Smisch, and when it became clear he
was going to lose the game, Nimzowitsch stood up on
the table and shouted, 'Gegen diesen Idioten muss ich
verlieren!' ('That I should lose to this idiot!')".

Nimzowitsch was annoyed by his opponents smoking.

A popular, but probably apocryphal, story is that once
when an opponent laid an unlit cigar on the table, he complained to the tournament arbiters, He is threatening to
smoke, and as an old player you must know that the threat
Grandmaster (GM) Raymond Keene writes that Nimis stronger than the execution.[15]
zowitsch was one of the worlds leading grandmasters
for a period extending over a quarter of a century, and Nimzowitsch had lengthy and somewhat bitter dogmatic
for some of that time he was the obvious challenger for conicts with Tarrasch over whose ideas constituted
the world championship. ... [He was also] a great and 'proper' chess.
profound chess thinker second only to Steinitz, and his Nimzowitschs vanity and faith in his ideas of overprotecworks Die Blockade, My System and Chess Praxis es- tion provoked Hans Kmoch to write a parody about him
tablished his reputation as one of the father gures of in February 1928 in the Wiener Schachzeitung. This conmodern chess.[11] GM Robert Byrne called him perhaps sisted of a mock game against the ctional player Systhe most brilliant theoretician and teacher in the history temsson, supposedly played and annotated by Nimzowof the game.[12] GM Jan Hein Donner called Nimzow- itsch himself. The annotations gleefully exaggerate the
itsch a man who was too much of an artist to be able to idea of overprotection, as well as asserting the true geprove he was right and who was regarded as something of nius of the wondrous idea. Kmoch was in fact a great
a madman in his time. He would be understood only long admirer of Nimzowitsch, and the subject of the parody
after his death.[13]
himself was amused at the eort.[16]
Many chess openings and variations are named after
Nimzowitsch, the most famous being the Nimzo-Indian
Defence (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4) and the less often played Nimzowitsch Defence (1.e4 Nc6). Nimzowitsch biographer GM Raymond Keene and others have
referred to 1.Nf3 followed by 2.b3 as the Nimzowitsch
Larsen Attack. Keene wrote a book about the opening
with that title. These openings all exemplify Nimzowitschs ideas about controlling the center with pieces instead of pawns. He was also vital in the development
of two important systems in the French Defence, the
Winawer Variation (in some places called the Nimzowitsch Variation; its moves are 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4)
and the Advance Variation (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5). He
also pioneered two provocative variations of the Sicilian
Defence: the Nimzowitsch Variation, 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6,
which invites 3.e5 Nd5 (similar to Alekhines Defence)
and 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 d5?! (the latter regarded as dubious today). International Master John
L. Watson has dubbed the line 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 3.Nf3
Bb4 the Nimzo-English, employing this designation in

Kmoch also wrote an article about his nine years with

Nimzowitsch:[17]
Nimzovich suered from the delusion that he
was unappreciated and that the reason was malice. All it took to make him blossom, as I
later learned, was a little praise. His paranoia was most evident when he dined in company. He always thought he was served much
smaller portions than everyone else. He didn't
care about the actual amount but only about the
imagined aront. I once suggested that he and I
order what the other actually wanted and, when
the food was served, exchange plates. After we
had done so, he shook his head in disbelief, still
thinking that he had received the smaller portion.
Nimzowitschs colleague Tartakower observed of him,
He pretends to be crazy in order to drive us all crazy.[17]

Notable chess games

Friedrich Saemisch vs Aron Nimzowitsch, Copenhagen 1923, Queens Indian Defence (E18), 01
The "Immortal Zugzwang Game" sees Saemisch get
tied up in knots.

[8] Aron Nimzowitsch Findagrave.com Accessed 8 October

2014.
[9] Chessmetrics Summary for 1925-35 Archived 2 May
2012 at the Wayback Machine., Chessmetrics web site,
accessed 7 May 2007.
[10] Jacob Aagard. Nimzowitsch for the 21st Century (pdf).

Chesscafe.com.
Paul Johner vs Aron Nimzowitsch, Dresden 1926,
NimzoIndian Defence, Rubinstein Variation (E47), [11] Raymond Keene, Aron Nimzowitsch: A Reappraisal,
01 One of Nimzowitschs most famous games sees
David McKay, 1974, p. 1. ISBN 0-679-13040-3.
White fall deep into passivity and get squeezed. This
game was chosen by Bent Larsen as his favourite [12] Anthony Saidy and Norman Lessing, The World of Chess,
Random House, 1974, p. 161. ISBN 0-394-48777-X.
game in 'Learn from the Grandmasters

Milan Vidmar vs Aron Nimzowitsch, New York

1927, Bogo-Indian Defence (E11), 01 A crafty
blending of strategy and tactics.

[13] J. H. Donner, The King: Chess Pieces, New in Chess,

2006, p. 46. ISBN 90-5691-171-6.

Richard Reti vs Aron Nimzowitsch, Berlin 1928,

NimzoIndian Defence (E38), 01 Two of the top
hypermoderns cross swords to showcase their latest
ideas.

[15] Edward Winter, A Nimzowitsch Story. Retrieved on

2009-03-02.

Em Bogoljubov vs Aron Nimzowitsch, San Remo

1930, NimzoIndian Defence, Bogoljubov Variation (E23), 01 Another encounter of hypermodern
heavyweights sees Nimzowitsch with two knights in
the endgame, and he handles them perfectly.

[14] Gambit Publications, 2008, ISBN 978-1-904600-98-5

[16] The full text of the parody is reprinted at Chesscafe.com

and in Keenes biography on Nimzowitsch (Chapter A
parody by Hans Kmoch).
[17] Hans Kmoch, Grandmasters I Have Known.
Cafe.com. Retrieved on 2009-03-02.

Chess-

8 Further reading
6

See also
List of chess games

References

[1] Image: cn3506_nimzowitsch_document.jpg, (501 676

px)". chesshistory.com. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
[2] Aron Nimzowitsch (1987). My System (Reprinted ed.).
B.T Batsford Ltd. ISBN 0-7134-5655-8.
[3] Archived copy. Archived from the original on 10 July
2009. Retrieved 2009-01-18.

Reinfeld, Fred (1948). Hypermodern Chess: As

Developed in the Games of its Greatest Exponent
Aron Nimzovich. Dover Publications. ISBN 0-48620448-0.
Chernev, Irving (1995). Twelve Great Chess Players
and Their Best Games. New York: Dover. pp. 1
13. ISBN 0-486-28674-6.
Keene, Raymond (1974). Aron Nimzowitsch: Master of Planning. G. Bell and Sons. ISBN 4-87187846-5.

9 External links

[4] Grandmasters I Have Known Aaron Nimzovich, by

Hans Kmoch, The Chess Cafe

Aron Nimzowitsch player prole and games at

Chessgames.com

[5] Copenhagen Police Record: Nimzowitsch, Aron, chess

master, born 07-11-1886 in Riga, from 29-11-1922 living
c/o Nielsen, Nansensgade 32, 1st oor, from 11-06-1923
at Missionshotellet, Lngangstrde 27, and from 28-061923 c/o Juul, ster Farimagsgade 11, 2. oor. politietsregisterblade.dk. Retrieved 31 August 2015.

A.N.'s Alternative Spellings of Names

[6] The Oxford Companion To Chess, 2nd Ed. (1996), by

David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld, p. 272
[7] The Oxford Companion To Chess, 2nd Ed. (1996), by
David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld, p. 273

Nimzowitsch related articles

Kmoch, Hans (2004). Grandmasters I Have Known:
Aaron Nimzovich (PDF). Chesscafe.com.

10

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