WEBVTT 00:01.160 --> 00:02.060 Hi there. 00:02.270 --> 00:05.540 In this introduction lecture, I want to talk about Aron Nimzowitsch. 00:06.170 --> 00:12.680 He wasn't a world chess champion, but he was one of the strongest in the world at the time in his era. 00:13.190 --> 00:21.080 And not just a great positional player with very innovative novel ideas. 00:21.380 --> 00:27.950 It was also a positional thought leader, and a lot of his teachings were in the classic book, My System. 00:29.030 --> 00:36.320 And there are many important sayings which, well, at least are thought provoking. 00:37.040 --> 00:37.550 Yes. 00:37.640 --> 00:46.010 So in the introduction to the modern edition of my system indicates that's one of the most important 00:46.010 --> 00:46.940 things about Nimzowitsch. 00:46.940 --> 00:51.560 He provides stimulation for thinking about positional concepts. 00:52.940 --> 01:00.350 He might not always be correct well, in all cases, but he provides the vocabulary for us to discuss 01:00.350 --> 01:07.730 positional play and put labels to things which previously didn't have such emphatic labels. 01:07.760 --> 01:13.700 Now, his quotations include, for example, do not always be thinking of attack. 01:13.700 --> 01:19.670 Moves that safeguard your position are often far more prudent. 01:19.940 --> 01:23.450 For me, this echoes the art of war principle. 01:23.450 --> 01:27.560 Put yourself beyond the feet before going onto the attack. 01:28.490 --> 01:35.330 If you're safeguarding your position or strengthening or slightly improving it, you are putting yourself 01:35.330 --> 01:36.170 beyond the feet. 01:36.170 --> 01:41.750 Before going on to the attack, for example, you might remove a tactical liability, you might improve 01:41.750 --> 01:47.240 a certain piece so it's more active and maybe that would be critical to try and defend your king if 01:47.240 --> 01:49.160 you went onto the attack prematurely. 01:49.160 --> 01:52.520 Maybe you are subject to a strong counter-attack. 01:52.880 --> 01:58.790 And because of one issue or another, you can't actually defend the counterattack. 01:58.790 --> 02:04.370 So the principle of putting yourself beyond the feet before going on to the attack is critical, in 02:04.370 --> 02:05.210 my view. 02:06.050 --> 02:08.690 He also says the main operation. 02:09.710 --> 02:17.300 The main objective of any operation in an open file is the eventual occupation of the seven or eight 02:17.670 --> 02:18.410 franc. 02:20.000 --> 02:29.240 And that is that echoes for me employability, that we should be in general aware that pieces might 02:29.240 --> 02:31.670 look good, but what happens later? 02:31.670 --> 02:34.730 Do they actually get juicy targets? 02:35.780 --> 02:41.930 So we need to see quite critically what leads to what in positional play. 02:42.230 --> 02:50.060 So quite often we'll see many examples in this course where, you know, rooks later come to the seventh 02:50.060 --> 02:53.960 rank like in this game, it might come to the seventh Frank later and there's a lot of juicy targets. 02:53.960 --> 02:59.570 And even if that doesn't immediately mate or win material, it could actually tie down the opponents 03:00.470 --> 03:04.250 having so many targets and some of them are pinned to the king, etc.. 03:04.250 --> 03:12.740 So yeah, this idea of managing the rooks effectively, having some vision for the effectiveness of 03:12.740 --> 03:15.740 the Rooks is important in chess. 03:17.260 --> 03:22.750 They are, you know, in the opening, they come to the center quite often as a prelude, hopefully 03:22.750 --> 03:27.010 later to find great destinations across the ranks. 03:29.230 --> 03:35.260 Okay, so Nimzowitsch also talked about strategically important points should be overprotected. 03:35.650 --> 03:39.850 Now, some very strong players think, well, he's just talking about centralization. 03:39.850 --> 03:43.300 Pieces that are in contact with central points is centralized. 03:43.330 --> 03:44.170 That's true. 03:44.170 --> 03:50.380 But also, I personally believe from a lot of nimzowitsch over protection examples. 03:50.500 --> 03:59.800 He's also talking about being able to attack again with freedom, more freedom because you've overprotected 03:59.800 --> 04:00.400 the central point. 04:00.400 --> 04:02.290 You can switch through an attack without counterplay. 04:02.290 --> 04:09.370 So in another respect, you could say that's a strengthening of position prior to either attacking or 04:09.940 --> 04:11.800 or tactical activities. 04:12.040 --> 04:19.300 So over protection is a very interesting idea which we find in INS, which is my system. 04:19.840 --> 04:25.780 He also talks at length about blockading and he had sayings like first restrain next blockade, lastly 04:25.780 --> 04:26.500 destroying. 04:26.500 --> 04:31.900 But in Nimzowitsch games himself, if you investigate nimzowitsch games, quite a lot of them he is 04:32.110 --> 04:38.260 restraining or preventing operations of say, the queenside before going on to attack onto a sac on 04:38.260 --> 04:39.130 the other side of the board. 04:39.130 --> 04:45.100 It's not necessarily about blockading double pawns with a view of winning them. 04:45.100 --> 04:49.990 He might just use that blockade to make sure the opponent's counterplay is prevented before going onto 04:49.990 --> 04:52.060 the attack against the king. 04:52.990 --> 04:59.200 So in my view, yeah, restrain the blockade is great to improve the position to make sure the opponent 04:59.860 --> 05:02.410 hasn't got too many dangerous options. 05:02.410 --> 05:09.040 That's part of improving the position to kind of make sure the sting is taken out of the opponent's 05:09.040 --> 05:09.820 possession. 05:10.330 --> 05:19.030 Whether you destroy pass pawns or just use that to sort of prelude and attack is again linking to strengthening 05:19.030 --> 05:22.690 the position before going onto the attack, putting yourself beyond the fight on the queenside. 05:22.690 --> 05:26.980 It could be with a restraint on blockade of double pawns before going on to the attack on the kingside. 05:26.980 --> 05:29.830 So again, it could be related to that as well. 05:31.030 --> 05:32.200 A very interesting saying. 05:32.200 --> 05:35.320 The Fritz I would say is often stronger than the execution. 05:35.320 --> 05:35.830 Sometimes. 05:35.830 --> 05:39.170 Clearly the threat should be done immediately if it's decisive. 05:39.190 --> 05:43.930 So many players have been confused with the quotation. 05:43.930 --> 05:49.330 The threat is stronger than the execution, but perhaps nimzowitsch actually meant the threat is often 05:49.330 --> 05:50.770 stronger than the execution. 05:50.770 --> 05:56.800 And sometimes if we have a pin, for example, sometimes we can celebrate that pin instead of winning 05:56.830 --> 06:00.340 material immediately, we can actually end up winning more material as an example. 06:00.340 --> 06:07.810 Or the opponent might be consumed with a lot of calculations to continually see about the threat, and 06:07.810 --> 06:10.510 that might wear them down both psychologically and on the clock. 06:10.510 --> 06:15.610 So in practice, this is often a practical, psychological thing and use of resources. 06:15.610 --> 06:19.210 The threat is often, in practice, stronger than the immediate execution. 06:19.210 --> 06:24.790 If we're talking about immediately winning material, maybe that material could be won later with delayed 06:24.790 --> 06:27.460 gratification under better conditions. 06:27.460 --> 06:32.230 For example, material could be one of the better conditions, but just the strain of the opponent having 06:32.230 --> 06:33.640 to continually calculate. 06:33.970 --> 06:36.790 And that is a hat of Magnus Carlsen. 06:37.030 --> 06:41.950 When there was this lecture I remember at Gibraltar, someone a grandmaster, was going on about Magnus 06:41.950 --> 06:43.420 Carlsen in different hats. 06:43.420 --> 06:48.100 And one of them is this kind of keeping the tension hat. 06:48.250 --> 06:55.510 So that's kind of equivalent when we keep the tension instead of being concrete in our executions, 06:55.510 --> 06:57.040 it makes it harder for the opponent. 06:57.040 --> 06:59.920 They have to keep looking and looking and looking. 06:59.920 --> 07:01.960 We haven't put them out of their misery. 07:01.960 --> 07:04.240 It's like a drama on TV. 07:04.240 --> 07:10.750 The drama is put in suspense like Alfred Alfred Hitchcock stories with suspense. 07:10.750 --> 07:15.730 You have to keep going on to the end of the film or the drama or to the next episode. 07:15.730 --> 07:23.020 So keeping the drama going rather than clarifying it is often stronger than the execution. 07:23.020 --> 07:30.910 But in a clear case where winning material is is absolutely winning, then there's less scope for that. 07:30.910 --> 07:37.120 And also on the other side of it, if the opponent seems to be threatening something, what if the execution 07:37.120 --> 07:38.020 isn't that great? 07:38.020 --> 07:41.200 Anyway, we've got to look at is it really that great? 07:41.200 --> 07:45.550 What they want to try and do is just winning material, but then they damage their position. 07:45.550 --> 07:47.260 So there's that aspect as well. 07:47.950 --> 07:51.370 Be cynical about the actual executions. 07:51.370 --> 07:54.550 They might just win a battle, not the whole war. 07:56.260 --> 07:58.270 And actually we're going to see that soon. 07:58.270 --> 08:00.820 In this example game that I'm going to show you. 08:01.990 --> 08:03.190 Another interesting thing. 08:03.190 --> 08:07.120 The passport is a criminal who should be kept under lock and key mode. 08:07.120 --> 08:10.090 Measures like police surveillance are not sufficient. 08:10.540 --> 08:11.050 For me. 08:11.050 --> 08:14.020 This echoes levels of prevention and blockades. 08:14.020 --> 08:18.700 When you blockade a pawn, you're physically limiting it from moving. 08:18.700 --> 08:20.680 You could say these pawns are locked together. 08:20.680 --> 08:26.890 They're physically stopping, moving, mutually blockading each other. 08:26.890 --> 08:28.180 But a night blockade in front of. 08:30.450 --> 08:33.180 It's the ultimate form of restraints. 08:33.180 --> 08:34.930 It's no chances given, really. 08:34.950 --> 08:41.760 Maybe under certain conditions, a an opponent's pawn might be able to advance and give dynamic compensation. 08:41.760 --> 08:45.240 It might sacrifice itself to open up a bishop or something. 08:45.240 --> 08:49.860 So when we blockade, we're firmly kind of restraining. 08:49.860 --> 08:52.350 And the same with a passport if we're blockading a passport. 08:52.350 --> 08:59.070 So the same applies to parts of our opponents pawn structure in general, in my view that we can think 08:59.070 --> 09:05.580 of levels of prevention, but blockade is like the highest level you can get in chance where you legally 09:05.580 --> 09:06.390 prevent. 09:06.480 --> 09:12.090 It's not a legal move, it's a move certain pawns which might might have helped open up the opponent's 09:12.090 --> 09:12.900 pieces. 09:14.850 --> 09:19.830 So yes, levels of prevention blockade being the top level. 09:19.830 --> 09:23.610 Prevention is a huge thing to maintain control of a position. 09:23.970 --> 09:27.750 So the example game I'd like to show you is a fragment. 09:27.960 --> 09:32.130 We analyze this game in detail in the course, but let's take this exciting position. 09:32.280 --> 09:38.130 It looks as though with White's last move that. 09:38.750 --> 09:44.870 They've supported the idea of playing E4 by pinning the pawn, and that would hit the knights. 09:44.870 --> 09:47.150 So there's them who want to move the knight back. 09:47.150 --> 09:50.810 So here we have to ask, is the execution really that bad? 09:51.410 --> 09:54.950 Actually, we have to be cynical about the execution of the threat. 09:54.950 --> 09:56.540 And actually, guess what? 09:56.540 --> 09:59.480 Nimzowitsch plays here for 100 points. 10:00.050 --> 10:03.310 So are we worried about this this night with E4? 10:03.320 --> 10:05.360 Is that actually a threat we need to be worried about? 10:08.600 --> 10:09.590 So Nimzowitsch. 10:10.510 --> 10:14.800 Has this notion about Rucks being aggressive if they reach the seven for eight Franks as well. 10:14.800 --> 10:16.600 So remember that notion as well. 10:16.600 --> 10:22.960 And you might come up with Bishop RD six, so just permit the execution of the France So E four and 10:22.960 --> 10:24.250 it looks as though hold on. 10:25.310 --> 10:30.160 You know, we don't want to create dark square weaknesses on the dark squares. 10:30.160 --> 10:33.430 We don't want to move the night back because it could run into e five. 10:33.430 --> 10:34.330 But guess what? 10:34.330 --> 10:37.870 Nimzowitsch is move is here, which is really fascinating. 10:40.540 --> 10:42.370 He actually goes for a rook on the seventh. 10:42.370 --> 10:44.050 He sacrifices the knight. 10:44.720 --> 10:52.460 So a sense of -- is blunting the G two bishop anyway and the knights taken. 10:52.460 --> 10:55.160 But now another pawn, two pawns for a knight. 10:55.310 --> 10:59.000 But it's an absolutely fascinating, fascinating position to try and evaluate. 10:59.000 --> 11:04.180 Black's actually doing really well here because also there are some bad pieces which really, like B 11:04.190 --> 11:12.770 one, can't really improve that easily where it's already in a binds and once win of material is actually 11:12.770 --> 11:13.730 made things worse. 11:13.730 --> 11:20.900 So Queen G five was played Rook 8f8 reinforces authority on the f fo White really can't challenge this 11:20.900 --> 11:22.190 F format easily. 11:22.190 --> 11:29.720 We see King H one and now rook 8f5 The Queen goes to e three and now Bishop RD three really tying white 11:29.720 --> 11:31.310 up vividly. 11:32.450 --> 11:39.860 And there's also an idea here now because the Queen has been stopped from going to be free, there's 11:39.860 --> 11:41.750 an idea of rookie to winning the queen. 11:42.470 --> 11:47.180 We have rook see one just addressing this idea of winning the queen. 11:47.660 --> 11:52.580 And now this move which just marks how it hasn't got any player at all age six. 11:52.580 --> 11:59.900 And actually here just to move 25 off to age six by black white resigns. 12:00.020 --> 12:04.910 Believe it or not, if Bishop F won, then, you know, we just take that. 12:05.540 --> 12:07.310 That's out of the question. 12:08.750 --> 12:12.020 If g for we play rook five to F three. 12:12.620 --> 12:13.970 And what is white doing here? 12:13.970 --> 12:15.380 The H six move is taken out. 12:15.380 --> 12:19.310 Queen G five so this but even. 12:20.730 --> 12:24.420 But also the thing is here, there's a real case to chat, mate. 12:24.690 --> 12:30.390 If h for then this move and this is still very strong for just winning the Queen instead of checkmate, 12:30.430 --> 12:32.760 we're just winning the Queen in that scenario. 12:33.000 --> 12:38.540 If a free we can maintain the bind with a fine making sure this knight hasn't got any opportunity. 12:38.550 --> 12:40.470 Eight six, eight x say be free. 12:40.470 --> 12:42.210 We can just play queen of seven. 12:43.290 --> 12:43.800 So why? 12:43.800 --> 12:47.580 It's in a major zugzwang even more now technically. 12:47.820 --> 12:55.200 And if G four we're just going to play this move and again we're trapping the queen or mating, we're 12:55.200 --> 12:57.510 going to win the queen or mating and rook C one. 12:57.870 --> 12:59.700 Then that's the weakness of the last move. 12:59.700 --> 13:03.450 We're going to tap into e two and win the Queen. 13:03.450 --> 13:04.800 So what a binds. 13:04.800 --> 13:05.940 What an amazing game. 13:05.940 --> 13:09.690 It was actually nicknamed the immortal Zugzwang game. 13:10.710 --> 13:15.120 So it actually links to some of the movie chess quotations. 13:15.540 --> 13:23.340 This is why I felt this was an interesting example to use, because it is basically talking about the 13:23.340 --> 13:26.430 threats and executions on the execution is actually that effective. 13:26.430 --> 13:31.140 We've got to be cynical about the threats and we've got to be cynical about the execution. 13:31.140 --> 13:35.220 We've got to be optimistic with our rooks trying to reach the seven for eight francs when they have 13:35.220 --> 13:41.190 juicy targets, whether they're winning those targets or pinning them down or chat mating, that's the 13:41.190 --> 13:41.550 Rooks. 13:41.550 --> 13:43.500 Ambition is often the ranks. 13:44.010 --> 13:47.970 The falls are just a prelude to the rank pressure. 13:48.840 --> 13:51.540 This idea first restrained blockade destroying. 13:51.540 --> 13:56.580 Well, you know, White was restrained in the widest sense prevented from doing anything. 13:56.580 --> 14:01.590 If you can keep doing that until the opponent has no useful moves, then that's an amazing thing to 14:01.590 --> 14:02.850 witness on the chessboard. 14:02.850 --> 14:07.290 And there's a whole beauty of positional chess, you know, just encapsulated in this game. 14:07.290 --> 14:08.010 Example. 14:08.010 --> 14:12.210 No wonder it's in so many game collections at sites like chess games. 14:12.210 --> 14:17.550 Com So this is one of my favorite vivid nimzowitsch positional games. 14:17.550 --> 14:21.420 White completely positionally destroyed. 14:21.420 --> 14:25.380 So we're going to see a lot of nimzowitsch game examples. 14:25.380 --> 14:34.290 I hope you're inspired to be looking forward to Nimzowitsch as well as a really important figure in 14:34.290 --> 14:38.280 positional chess because he created a lot of interesting terminology and methods. 14:38.280 --> 14:45.030 So whilst Steinitz and Lasker together led the foundation for the modern game and modern positional 14:45.030 --> 14:52.500 play, Nimzowitsch found very useful exceptions and refined ideas and made things clearer for the positional 14:52.500 --> 14:53.970 player to follow. 14:53.970 --> 15:01.950 And it seems that Petrosian was a big fan of Nimzowitsch as well as Capablanca, and so was Anatoly 15:01.950 --> 15:05.250 Karpov, a big fan of Capablanca as well as Petrosian. 15:05.370 --> 15:13.230 So yeah, Nimzowitsch is a Rhodes influence for positional chess and if you check out my system is also 15:13.230 --> 15:18.360 admiring players like Rubinstein, Steinitz, Lasker. 15:18.390 --> 15:24.060 You know, he respects the world champions and use those players as examples as well as we showed in 15:24.060 --> 15:24.570 this course. 15:24.570 --> 15:27.300 So Steinitz and Alaska, don't forget them. 15:27.300 --> 15:33.660 They set out the very foundations of the modern game and modern positional chess. 15:34.500 --> 15:39.690 So but Nimzowitsch was one of the leading hyper modernists. 15:39.750 --> 15:46.500 So the hyper modernist, you know, they found these useful exceptions to extend and clarify theory. 15:46.500 --> 15:51.180 So he clarified positional ideas greatly with his writings. 15:51.600 --> 15:56.400 So I hope you enjoy this little introduction to Nimzowitsch and are motivated a little bit more with 15:56.400 --> 16:00.840 conviction as we go over nimzowitsch examples in the course. 16:00.840 --> 16:03.240 Okay, very much.