Hi there.
In this lecture, we see a very grounded attacking player, Alexander Alekhine playing against Aron
Nimzowitsch in 1930 Sanremo Tournament round three.
I just had to include this game in this positional section of kind of zugzwang zugzwang opponents.
So Alekhine plays f4 Nimzowitsch plays e6 we see d4 d5 93 Bishop b4 so a winner variation e5 c5 Bishop
d2 we see 97 and now Knight B five.
Bishop takes D to check Queen takes D2 and Nimzowitsch castles C free B six.
So here, perhaps better would have been to hit the pawn chain and the head of the pawn chain.
Maybe this occurred to Nimzowitsch.
It does actually generate significant counterplay.
Sometimes you don't need to hit the pawn chain at the base or the exploitable base.
So the base would be be to where the exploitable base of the pawn chain is d4.
So here if F4 as example C takes D for C text, dd for F takes E five, D takes E five.
This position should actually be overall slightly better for black, but B6 was played, which is kind
of passive.
F for Bishop a6 Knight F three Queen d7a for supporting that knight a bit more like BC six and now alekhine
plays b4 we have C takes b4 C text P for Bishop b seven and now d6f5 Nimzowitsch is playing quite passively
on this occasion.
We have a 598 and now Knight takes B seven, queen takes B seven, and now a six, Queen F seven, Bishop
B five.
And this is which plays Knight eight to E seven.
If he plays Knight six to E seven position me.
This is just great for why after Rook C one this position is just the delight when it can get authority
on that C file and infiltrate just in time to C seven.
And this is causing a lot of damage for black, this infiltration.
For example, Bishop dd seven here B five black is really tied down and we can use that safety hook
of the A six pawn.
So for example here Bishop C six and black's on the real pressure and we could end up playing a tactic
like Rook takes e seven looking at Black's not careful, but it's getting very, very difficult for
black hair.
So okay then switch plays night eight to to e seven Alekhine castles H six fc one rook fc eight.
And now there is a kind of delayed gratification we don't really want to exchange on C six.
Now, if you did regard this as a plain vanilla simplifying tactic, we're going to make this so much
more effective, this idea of the C six pressure.
So rook c to Queen Knight building up the pressure.
And here we have Queenie free for the moment and black's not going anywhere.
And in fact, yeah, if we take on C six, we're going to lose most of our advantage.
We're not going to be left with anything.
But there's one of building up the advantage here.
With slight improvements to the position and Alekhine style.
Alekhine is known for his battery called the Alekhine's Gun, and that is a great concept for intensifying
battery pressure.
He first plays Rook C free this sosoli vacates c two Farooq So we have now this other one going to C
two which thusly vacates C one for the Queen.
And this is the Anakin's gun construction.
So we've got a huge pressure building up on C six and do we even want to take on C six with the bishop?
No.
Guess what We play here for ten points.
Which creates a huge threat.
Which compromises Black's position.
Okay.
Bishop A for the front of B five now is compromising black Nimzowitsch play's B5 himself.
So if Queenie ab5, we're just going to win material with Rook takes C seven hair and let's say nine,
C two, we take on C two.
Yeah, we just we've just won material.
We want a piece.
So B five.
This is a rather desperate situation for Nimzowitsch completely tied up.
Bishop takes P five, King E eight, and then Bishop A for renewing the idea of Bishop of the B five
move supported by the Bishop.
So we have King D eight trying to hold on to C seven and now Alekhine just plays a move showing that
black is in a zugzwang basically.
Can you see what it is there?
Well, there's lots of good good moves here, but this is one of them.
H4.
Well done if you've considered this.
So this simple move says, What are you doing here?
End of game move 30.
And it makes B5 a lot more effective to try and get more neglect of C seven.
You know, we could have played B5 immediately, by the way, but this is a case where why not improve
the position slightly by getting back to neglect?
C seven Sure, we've got an advantage here anyway, but this is so much better.
H for the king is going to have to move and then say King E eight B5 and look at C seven dropping off
98.
We're just going to take on C seven thanks to that Anakin's gun.
So a classic, well celebrated alekhine game where Nimzowitsch, the great writer on positional chess,
was completely dominated in this particular game.
It happens.
Nimzowitsch has beaten Alekhine on occasion, though it has to be noted.
So unfortunately Nimzowitsch hasn't beaten Capablanca, but he has actually been alekhine.
Nevertheless, Nimzowitsch set up the vocabulary for positional chess, so I think we can forgive him
that he didn't have a plus score versus the world champions.
He was just highly influential for positional thinking and influenced future world chess champions like
Petrosian and Karpov.
So och, this was a bad day for Nimzowitsch, but it's just showing this idea that the Alekhine's gun
can be used for kind of positional zugzwang.
It's an absolute classic to enjoy.
I hope you've enjoyed this game so much.