Hi there.
In this lecture, we see Paul Jonah against Aron Nimzowitsch in the 1926 Dresden tournament, round
two.
So we see D4 and Nimzowitsch plays the Nimzowitsch engine, his brainchild, opening.
So he's actually implementing concepts in this opening variation of the E 690 C free.
He's delighted to get the pin.
This is the Nimzowitsch engine, the fence named after him.
Nimzowitsch So e free the Rubinstein variation Black Castles, Bishop de Fray and now C5.
This is a very interesting move.
Black wants the double pawns later and have a blockade on the double pawns.
So we see 9396.
These are concepts we take for granted nowadays, and the Nimzowitsch engine remains hugely popular
at grandmaster level.
So White Castles here Bishop takes C for a doubling white's pawns D six and trying to establish a firm
blockade here.
Now, sometimes it's to try and win C for later, but generally it can also be used just to create a
positional binds and make sure this bishop doesn't have an active career on C one.
It's like locked in its own pawns.
We see 92 and now B six already, according to modern engines, Black's already equalized.
That's a great achievement.
And the Grandmaster game.
If Black could equalize this easily, the celebrating we see might be free in a modern grandmaster game.
So Knight, be free.
This knight doesn't seem to have many prospects on B3.
We have E five, F four.
And this really further kind of destroys the C one bishop.
So E four is played.
There is one strategic danger for black here that black has committed the center and maybe sometimes
G four could be dangerous with this kind of thing trying to get a wing attack.
We see Queen de seven, which immediately kind of prevents g four, in fact.
So this is a very interesting kind of invisible preventative move because it's not the sort of thing
you'd think is is justifiable, usually moving a pawn around your king.
But yeah, here it is, a preventative move in some respects.
For G four we have H three, Knight E seven, and now Queenie one is played if g four in this position,
Black has the energetic H five.
So this battery is still useful here.
And if 92 H tanks H takes black and plane light takes g four and swap g four for e four, this position
turns out to be, as example, slightly better for black.
If we take this a bit further and we simplify, black is better here after rook 893 nine takes C three
black ends up being slightly better.
So that would be an example of mass simplification where black is still Bella.
Yeah, if G4 had been played.
Okay, so G4 wasn't played.
We have Queen E, one and H five firmly preventing G4 now.
And also of course it vacates age seven, which could be useful.
Bishop de D2 Queen at five.
And we have an element also of over protection theme.
This is a central point.
If we can coordinate around this point, our pieces will be naturally centralized.
It's better than say, trying to over protect a non central point.
We're naturally centralizing with this over protection.
We have a bind on the position.
And with this blockade there's also an element of the art of war, putting oneself beyond fate on the
queenside.
The whole wing has been restrained.
So when we go for an attack does it's unlikely to have queenside counterplay, which is too dangerous.
We've minimized the danger level of queenside counterplay in advance of a kingside attack here.
So usually, you know, the saying goes restrain blockade than destroy.
But I put an extra spin on this when I originally annotated this game on YouTube, you know, restrain,
blockade, then attack, because this restraint is like putting oneself beyond the feet on a whole wing
before going on the attack.
So Queen H seven now is played.
So this not only x rays, the king, it keeps the E four point overprotected.
We have a four and L knight have five.
Black could have played the natural looking A5 just to make sure this is not any danger at all.
Okay.
We would have a backward B six pawn.
No.
And however, you know this way of playing it, White's queenside attack is too slow.
Generally we're going to get in g five with a strong attack.
This outweighs losing a pawn over here.
We're just building up a strong attack.
But anyway, we have knights f5g Freeze and White passed up some options here in playing g three if
rugby one we can actually play Knight G for Shaq.
This position is kind of dangerous for g free that form pawn queen H to make threat.
And here Queen H two, Queen H one mating if a five.
Let's run this critical test.
Bishop D seven Is it a big deal?
We want to delay g four here because if 9g4 immediately delayed gratification black has bishop takes
And why would we want to give white the counterplay here?
Yeah it's causing you know, a potential issue.
Why would we want to give why all of this play We can play like this though still with a very good position.
So if if Black's resourceful enough, it's still is dangerous.
If g takes are free hair Queen takes this position is also kind of delightfully strong for black.
The attack is is strong.
We can actually hijack this B file and be winning here.
But in principle, I mean if we take a more principled approach.
Yeah, it looks like there's a delayed gratification in the way nimzowitsch And in that variation we
could use delayed gratification for greater effect.
Basically.
So with Bishop DD seven.
So that 8/10 isn't a problem.
And here, you know, this is going to be a strong position in any case.
More positional.
It's, it's just the winning position of the black already, basically.
So let's have a look at RG3 now.
This is the game.
We have a five now putting this pawn under lock and key with blockade with a pawn.
We have rook g19286.
Bishop F one.
Bishop dd seven.
And it's also kind of ties down the rook if one is caring about the pawn.
Bishop C one.
Rook AC eight.
D five.
King H eight.
So this makes way for potentially increasing the pressure, the positional pressure and the advantage
simultaneously pressure by doubling up the rooks.
We have 92 and now this operation to double up the rooks, which is naturally improving and improving
the pressure and the position.
So once heinously so Rook two we have 95 improving the pressure on G free and G file.
Bishop H one And this build up is very difficult to defend.
Queen D one We have G takes F four, E takes F four if G takes.
We're just taking the rook.
Thanks very much.
So e takes F for the bishop drops back because actually there's another angle of attack in White's position.
This angle that C four is weak and kind of neglected over here by this bishop is looking at e four knight
g four check was worth entertaining.
Actually there's strong tactics in knight H four check.
So here G takes your free checked.
This is a knockout blow.
In fact, that is a very, very strong tactic.
If h takes this a bit murkier with h four, though.
So this position, blacks still has got a phenomenal attack.
But why go to the gambling casino?
Of of complex variations.
This is like going to the gambling casino instead of.
Yeah, sure, we're winning here, but it looks a little bit crazy offering a rook here, you know,
checked when the queen.
Okay, we're winning, but it's like a maze of variations, potentially.
If it takes.
Yeah.
That's amazing.
Bit of a maze.
But Bishop Kate, we have Queen Bee free.
A number six just intensifying the positional pressure, tying the queen down to a measly pawn.
C4 pawn.
We have rookie, too.
If the Queen dared to leave the pawns Protection Bishop takes C for hitting the rook.
Knight G four is really strong here for 94, and this is just a massive improvement on things before
there's no h takes g h times.
We're just simply mating here.
So, yes, that is a disaster because we get in.
Knight takes F two, king takes have to rook takes g once a disaster for white so rookie two 9 to 4.
So it's almost as if Nimzowitsch is not just trying to win.
It's like going out of his way to really embarrass his opponents, not giving them any counterplay whatsoever,
having such miserable positions devoid of any meaningful moves.
And, you know, he's putting concepts into openings which survive the test of time, like the limits
of Indian, you know, other concepts he's put into other variations like the French with Queen G4 for
open protection are not so popular nowadays, but it is still crops up, you know, as a theme over
protection in general.
But yeah, this is just a beautiful example where why it has no play really so rookie free if Queen
takes B6 now not her free.
Check this position Bishop takes he takes rook B to.
We can play F to her.
And the thing is, we're using up a square, which could have been a king's escape route and the G for
track here.
King G to Queen E for check recovery.
Queen E to check.
And this is ending with brutal chap, mate.
So rookie free.
We have Bishop.
He ain't going back now.
Why?
It's tied up in knots.
We have Queen C two.
If queen takes B six here we have Queen F five.
As example, looking at H three of Rock g29.
We have free check.
Rook takes her free, He takes her free.
It's just so crushing.
So so Queen C two we have Bishop takes H free Bishop takes E for and Bishop five We have Bishop takes
her five, Knight takes her five.
The attack is far too strong.
H for Rook.
G two.
g2h takes G free check King G one Queen H 393 and now Knight H for threatening Knight F three in Queen
H one.
Among the things king of one is polite and now rookie A and white actually resigned here so this isn't
move 40 if 91 as example simply you know the rook go back and this position for example 93 there's 9g4
and the idea is to weaken G two here.
If we can weaken G two then Now that's the weakness of the last move.
You know, we're just tactically winning.
Queen H one check wrote one and we can play The Beautiful Queen takes G one check for one chap Checkmate
among other things.
So yeah, a really delightful restraint blockade then attack game.
I was really delighted to present this many years back on YouTube is I really fascinated by Nimzowitsch
as my system and, you know, reevaluating this stuff now.
It's amazing that he was a real conceptual innovator and so he could create brand new variations making
use of the ingredients of his, you know, new concepts.
But the Nimzowitsch engine is one of the finest examples of many of his ideas passing the test of time.
The idea of giving up the dark score to double pawns for restraint, blockade, strategy, whether that's
to win, see, for later or just for an attack like in this game, it's still a bind on the queenside.
It's like putting yourself beyond the feet on the queenside before going on the attack in this particular
game.
Example.
So wonderful stuff.
Really inspirational positional play and Nimzowitsch has argued that the whole of prophylaxis in his
view, is in a way much more beautiful than this kind of systematic accumulation of advantages.
However, if you look at this game with a modern engine graph, it does look as though it is a ruthless
accumulation of advantages as well as being beautiful in terms of prevention.
Prevention is part of the modern toolkit of positional players, so players like Karpov and Michael
Adams are using prevention all the time to accumulate their advantages because otherwise, yes, you
don't want you you want the opponent ideally shut down, you don't want to have counterplay, basically.
And that was the case here.
So I hope you really enjoy this game as much as me has.
Very much.