Book Review: My System

I have only one major gripe about this book, and I'll get it of my chest right now.  Some of the translation from the original German is awful.  It appears to me that the book has been translated in parts.  Chapters 9 and onward seem to have been translated  by a competent human, while the earlier chapters read like they were translated by a cranky old computer program such as babelfish.  The concepts in these early chapters is understandable, but they are a chore to read.  I was tempted to quit reading somewhere around the sixth chapter, but I perservered.  If you happen to read this version of My System, and you, too, take issue with the writing, I suggest that you grit your teeth and push through the first nine chapters.  In the end, it will be worth the hassle!

Incidentally, if any of my readers have read other English translations of this book and can comment on the quality of the translations, I hope you'll post below.

My System, is divided into two main sections: "The Elements," and "Positional Play".  This distinction is a bit odd to me as it would seem to indicate that "The Elements" would describe tactical play, whereas it really talks about the building blocks of strategic play with a few bits of tactical issues thrown in for good measure.  To me, at least, there is no clear line of demarcation between tactics and strategy with this book, so the best bet is to just ignore the whole thing and get down to business.  It all makes sense in it's own mashed-up way and labels be damned!

Right from the first few pages of My System, I learned things that I could immediately put to good use.  The subject of tempo is just one of those things about which I've never read a satisfactory description, but finally, thanks to Nimzowitsch, I think I understand the use of tempo in the opening.  Another issue about which I've been a bit shaky for some time is the use of rooks and open files.  Again, Nimzovitsch does an excellent job of clearing up this subject.  If you have studied many games by the masters, you've no doubt come across some rook moves that just don't seem to make any sense.  A player slides a rook over to a file that isn't even half-open, never mind open, as if there was some purpose, but the reason is completely opaque and the annotator conveniently fails to justify the rook move.  Well, Nimzovitsch calls these things "mysterious rook moves," and explains what they are all about.  A definite "aha!" moment for me.

Here's another thing that has perplexed me for quite a while.  I've often read a phrase along the lines of "provoke a weakness, fix it as a target, eliminate the target."  The discussions about this philosophy have been lacking at best, but as Nimzovitsch lays it out in his description of pawn chains and blockading, the issue emerges with extreme clarity.  Another "aha!" moment.

It's interesting to note that the author's definition of a pawn chain is somewhat different than definitions I have read before.  The reason for this is fairly clear from the text because Nimzovitsch's definition is necessary for his treatment of how to attack pawn structures.  He maybe could have chosen a different phrase to describe this pawn structure, but you'll get the hang of it quickly enough.

Probably the thickest common thread throughout the weave of My System is the center of the board:  how to occupy it, how to defend it, how to control it, and when to shift your attack away from the center and onto a flank.  I found that last bit particularly interesting because, as with much of this book, Nimzovitsch treats a subject about which I am familiar in a way that clarifies my understanding. 

It`s a bit difficult to speak about some of these topics in isolation because it`s often the case that the explanations in this book revolve around several concepts at once.  In general, it`s not a tough read, however, because the intertwining of concepts logically falls out from their nature.  It sure makes it a bit difficult to relate these topics without paraphrasing huge chunks of the book, so you`re going to have to trust me that it all makes sense in the end!

There are gobs and gobs of good things to say about My System, but hopefully I've given you a taste of what lives between the covers.

Besides the somewhat dubious translation, are there any other bad bits of which to be wary?  The trouble with trying to answer this question is that it's difficult for me to say much about the bits that I didn't understand.  I don't know if they didn't make sense because Nimzowitsch didn't describe them well enough, or because I'm just not far enough along in my chess study for them to make any sense.  I tend to lean towards the latter explanation.  At any rate, this is definitely a text for me to revisit, maybe six months down the road, partly for reinforcement of the issues I understood and partly to try to ferret out some understanding of the bits that made no sense the first time around.  The final chapter, entitled "Manoeuvring,"  totally baffled me.  I can't even tell you what it's about - I'm that stumped.

Nimzowitsch spends a bit of time railing against his critics, more time explaining how innovative his chess theory is, and some additional time bashing the followers of Tarrasch's school of thought.  Interestingly, Nimzowitsch makes it clear that he is not trashing Tarrasch himself, but rather the folks that blindly follow Tarrasch's methods.  None of this stuff is really germain to the Nimzowitsch system of play, but it certainly is an interesting look into the mind of the author.

I'd say that My System is a must-read for every serious chess player, but you'll need to be fairly well read to be prepared for this book.  If you've read most of the books I have read, or have read a similar assortment of chess books, I think you'll do OK.  In case you haven't been keeping up with my book reviews, you should check them out  and decide for yourself if you've got the jam for My System.  However, if you buy a copy of My System and find you aren't quite up to tackling it yet, you won't have wasted your money on it.  I'm sure you will eventually want (or even need) to read this book.

As always, I'm Stick, your resident wordslinger, and I'll see y'all out there on the gridiron!