Chess QuoteMasters #2: Aron Nimzowitsch
To be great is to be misunderstood. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, his essay "Self-Reliance"
Questions for the Reader to Ponder
Why QM Nimzowitsch Earned the #2 Spot
Reminder About Those "Questions for the Reader"
Why a QM HoF? Well, you can find multiple sites that list plenty of chess quotes (e.g., Chess Quotes - Wisdom and Interest). Some even let you find quotes by a specific individual or at least on a topic, e.g., tactics.
Heck, you might even have an opinion on the greatest chess quote! Certainly, it wouldn't surprise anyone if you have a favorite quote. For many of us there's some quote that has stuck with us through thick and thin, like a jingle we can't shake out of our head. Can anyone get "Castle early and often" out of their head, no matter how often that turns out to be untrue? Or you may have switched your allegiance to some other quote over the weeks, months, years, or decades of your chess experience.
But have you ever spent some time speculating about who produced the best chess quotes and in the greatest quantity? Hey, it's no problem if you haven't considered the issue! I'm more than willing to fill that particular void in your thoughts with my opinions!!
What makes my opinions better than yours? Well, my opinion is informed by decades of chess and a (slowly shrinking) chess library that still occupies multiple shelves in my library [at the same time, my electronic chess library grows weekly and far more rapidly]. Primarily, though, I'm the one who took the time to put some thought into this sorely overlooked aspect of chess history, a Top Ten ranking of the greatest Chess QuoteMasters (QMs) of all time. NOTE: I'll offer a bevy of quotes by QMs #11 – 23 at a later date.
Still, it's just a set of my opinions. Besides, if you don't fully agree with my judgments, though I can hardly imagine such a contrary, confused, and contumacious state of mind, then chess.com generously provided a comments section so you can express your agreements, disagreements, quibbles, corrections, expansions, nominations, and questions. Some of which I will respond to!
Next, we quickly review the candidates.
The candidates, in alphabetical order starting from the top left corner, are Alekhine, Bronstein, Capablanca, Dvoretsky, Fischer, Kasparov, Kotov, Lakdawala, Emanuel Lasker, Mednis, Nimzowitsch, Nunn, Pachman, Romanovsky, Seirawan, Silman, Soltis, Spielmann, Steinitz, Tal, Tarrasch, Tartakower, and Znosko-Borovsky.
No, you can't add anyone. All the selecting has already been done, and that's that, so it's too late to nominate anyone else. And the choices for #1 to #10 are also locked in the electrons orbiting inside my computer. So there!
You may have noted there are more than ten candidates, twenty-three in point of fact! Well, of course there are! Otherwise, you could start making some incredibly well-informed guesses after the first five were announced. Now there's at least an attempt to shroud the results in a bit of mystery as we count down to numbers four, three, two, and one!
Thought I'd prompt you up front on some of the questions you might want to ponder while reading, and before commenting on the blog at the end.
| Based on the quotes you're about to read, already read for other QMs, or simply your ill-advised, preconceived notions, was Nimzowitsch a good choice for the number two spot? |
| Who do you think will take the number 1 spot? Nobody chose wisely for numbers five through ten! But one person, @PokeGirl93, nailed it for QM HoF entrant, #4 Mikhail Tal and then correctly pegged Nimzo at #2! That makes her #1 in the QM betting pool!! |
| Who do you think will take the number one spot? |
Some Q&As from earlier blogs in this series.
| Question | Current Votes (last updated: 07192025: 5:32 PM EST) |
| Who do you think was left out? | Philidor (1), Morphy (1), Giri (1), Grischuk (1), Rozman (1), Tony Miles (1) |
| Who do you think won't make the QM Top Ten at all? | Capablanca (1), @DocSimoo's Grandma (1), Alekhine (1), Lakdawala (1), Znosko-Borovsky (1) |
| Who did people think would take the number ten spot? |
Bronstein (1), Nimzowitsch (1), Spassky (1), Tarrasch (1) |
| Who did people think would take the number nine spot? | Pachman (1), Lasker (1), Steinitz (1) |
| Who did people think would take the number eight spot? | Lasker (1), Nimzowitsch (1), Steinitz (1) |
| Who did people think would take the number seven spot? | Lasker (1), Lakdawala (1), Tartakower (1) |
| Who did people think would take the number six spot? | Lasker (1), Lakdawala (1) |
| Who did people think would take the number five spot? | Lasker (1) |
| Who did people think would take the number four spot? | Tal (1) 👍🏻Congrats to @PokeGirl93, Lasker (1) |
| Who did people think would take the number three spot? | Lasker (1), Dvoretsky (1) |
| Who did people think would take the number two spot? | Nimzowitsch (1) 👍🏻Congrats to @PokeGirl93, Lasker (1) |
| Who did people think would take the number one spot? | Nimzowitsch (2), Fischer (½*), Tal (½*), Tarrasch (1)***,)
Kasparov (1), Znosko-Borovsky (1) |
* @DocSimoo split their vote for #1 between Fischer and Tal. Oops, after seeing QMs four and five that guess is crossed and tossed.
** It's clear we have a Lasker fan, but I won't mention the kiwi girl's name. She never specified which of the three Laskers she meant, but Berthold and Edward aren't among the nominees, so I'll assume she meant Emanuel, the former World CC and noted scribe. [She has since informed me that she definitely meant Emanuel.🙂 She knew I knew that, but it was worth a tiny chuckle.]
*** Our participating titled player, NMChessToImpress, got convinced by a friend of theirs to change their vote for #1 from Nimzo to Tarrasch. That didn't work out for either vote. However, those QMs both ended up in the Top Triumvirate. That's impressive guessing!
#50 chess.com Hall of Fame: Aron Nimzowitsch The official chess.com site. Less interesting, imo.
HoF #50: Nimzowitsch –"The Stormy Petrel" My post. It's more interesting, imo.
Aron Nimzowitsch (Latvian: Ārons Nimcovičs; Russian: Аро́н Иса́евич Нимцо́вич) was born in Riga, Latvia on 7 November 1886, but played and wrote as a Danish GM and was a two-time Nordic CC. ChessMetrics estimates his peak rating at 2780 in September 1929, placing him at #3 globally. One of the great personalities in chess history, his best playing years were in the late 1920s, although he had achieved earlier successes as seen in a tie for first with Alekhine at St. Petersburg 1914. Then a war interrupted the royal game.
He is well-known as one of the leading practitioners of hypermodernism, and some deign to nominate him as the founder.
What others had to say about him:
We believe that his strength is his weakness; he plays such bizarre openings and such complicated games that very often he is just as much puzzled as his opponent, if not more so, as to the best course to follow. – Capablanca (NYT, Sports section, 02-16-27)
As far as Nimzowitsch is concerned, you know as well as I do that he, notwithstanding his fairly good results, is hardly a real grandmaster, so that I am really surprised that people make such a ridiculous fuss over him of late. – Letter from Bogoljubow to Capablanca, 7 December 1926. Aron Nimzowitsch by Edward Winter
For nearly twenty years Nimzowitsch has been the stormy petrel of the chess world. – Philip Hereford, translator of My System, the first sentence of the Translator's Preface. (It's on my shelves and was easy to find.)
A feeble, illogical eccentricity, typical of Nimzowitsch’s play. – Fairhurst regarding Nimzowitsch's 6th move in a game against Koch, Chess Amateur, May 1928 (pages 244-245) Aron Nimzowitsch by Edward Winter.
Multiple openings and variations are credited to him, the most enduring and famous, imo, being the Nimzo-Indian Defense.
Some Selected Nimzowitsch Writings
As a writer Nimzo earned eternal fame as the author of Mein System (My System), Die Praxis Meines Systems (literally The Practice of My System but generally known as Chess Praxis), and Die Blockade (The Blockade). The last book is considered largely a reiteration of material from Mein System. Guess I'm glad I didn't buy that third book!
People have taken both sides on the merit of Nimzo's writings!
"My System" is a book of generalizations...the value of these generalizations in the process of learning chess is enormous. To put it simply, this is the real theory creation. Until a general principle is formulated, each chess player should rediscover it on their own, wasting time and effort using their intuition. And intuition – I know what I am talking about! – is an uncertain thing, it can fail you. – GM Mikhail Tal, former World CC
Each time I leaf through the "Chess Praxis", the book that I literally kept under my pillow and read in my childhood like fairy tales, I rediscover A. Nimzowitsch's maxims that, as I understand now, had become the basis for my chess views a long time ago. – GM Tigran Petrosian, the former World CC, Foreword to Aron Nimzowitsch's "Chess Praxis", published 1979, blog post by @spektrowski
The author’s treatment of these subjects provides a systematic and detailed analysis of various chess positions and strategies. His ideas on pawn structure, exploitation of the 6th, 7th, and 8th ranks, and the concept of overprotection were novel and influential. [My System] 40 Best Chess Books [Your Ultimate Guide to Chess Mastery]
Nimzowitsch was an egomaniac, and his ideas were rubbish. – GM Yasser Seirawan
"My System" is perhaps the most over-rated book in chess history. – GM Ivan Sokolov
Regret wasting my time with "My System". – GM Kevin Spraggett
Nimzowitsch also endlessly attacked Siegbert Tarrasch for the latter’s "overly orthodox to the core" strategic principles of chess. Eventually, however, Nimzowitsch himself succumbed to the peril of adhering too closely to one’s principles and could be quite as dogmatic as Tarrasch, forgetting that every situation should be approached on its own merits.
Nimzowitsch's Top Twenty Quotes
Okay, let's get to the heart of the matter, the ten quotes allowed to each candidate for the QM Top Ten. Presciently, I realized I'd need more than ten quotes to decide who was #2 and who was #1.
You'll observe Quote #1 in the image above. As I explained in the Criteria, it's important to me to be able to visualize at least one quote.
Moving on to the next nine quotes. I could have created images for several of these, but the ample goal for each of the QMs will simply be to demonstrate that one of their quotes was readily converted to an image that resonates.
The threat is stronger than the execution. "Aron Nimzowitsch 1928-1935: Annotated Games & Essays”, p.272, New In Chess
First restrain, next blockade, lastly destroy. Chess Quotes - Strategy
How can I lose to such an idiot? Aron Nimzowitsch by Edward Winter
In a rook and pawn ending, the rook must be used aggressively. It must either attack enemy pawns or give active support to the advance of one of its own pawns to the queening square. Chess Quotes - Endings
No pawn exchanges, no file-opening, no attack. Chess Quotes - Pawns
The defensive power of a pinned piece is only imaginary. Chess Quotes - Tactics
The main objective of any operation in an open file is the eventual occupation of the seventh or eighth rank. Aron Nimzowitsch Quotes About Chess | A-Z Quotes
The best variation to use in a tournament is not a merely good line, but more exactly a line which, though good, is considered to be bad. (Carlsbad, 1929, p.64)
Even the laziest King flees wildly in the face of a double check! Aron Nimzowitsch Quotes About Chess | A-Z Quotes (image below)
The beauty of a move lies not in its appearance but in the thought behind it. Aron Nimzowitsch Quotes About Chess | A-Z Quotes
Many men, many styles; what is chess style but the intangible expression of the will to win. Chess Quote - Style
Ridicule can do much, for instance embitter the existence of young talents. Aron Nimzowitsch Quotes About Chess | A-Z Quotes
In the middlegame, the king is merely an extra, but in the endgame, he is one of the star actors. Aron Nimzowitsch Quotes About Chess | A-Z Quotes
How vain are our fears! I thought to myself. "Sometimes we fear that which our opponent (or fate) had never even considered! After this, then, is it any longer worthwhile to rack one's brain to find new ghosts to fear? No, indeed: All hail optimism! - upon his opponent Mattison missing an unusual knight maneuver. Chess Quotes by Nimzowitsch
Chess strategy as such today is still in its diapers, despite Tarrasch's statement 'We live today in a beautiful time of progress in all fields.' Not even the slightest attempt has been made to explore and formulate the laws of chess strategy. Chess Quotes - Strategy
It is a well known phenomenon that the same amateur who can conduct the middle game quite creditably, is usually perfectly helpless in the end game. One of the principal requisites of good chess is the ability to treat both the middle and end game equally well. Chess Quotes - Endings
The great mobility of the King forms one of the chief characteristics of all endgame strategy. In the middlegame the King is a mere 'super', in the endgame on the other hand - one of the 'principals'. We must therefore develop him, bring him nearer to the fighting line. Chess Quotes - Endings
If in a battle, I seize a bit of debatable land with a handful of soldiers, without having done anything to prevent an enemy bombardment of the position, would it ever occur to me to speak of a conquest of the terrain in question? Obviously not. Then why should I do so in chess? Chess Quotes - Strategy
No matter how much we have tried to convince Spielmann of the impossibility of surviving on nothing more than developing and attacking moves (and I have tried hardest of all, through my books and our conversations), still he tries, almost as a matter of principle, to avoid the necessity of defense! (Carlsbad, 1929, p.32)
I would hope some sharp-eyed critic out there would ask this critical question: What criteria did I use to determine who made the QM Top Ten List and who didn't? You asked for it, you got it! Right here, and right now.
| #1 | Gut feel. Darned if what they said doesn't resonate somewhere in my chess soul. |
| #2 | Must have ten quotable quotes that I could find without too much painful research on my part. |
| #3 | It must have been written or translated into English. I leave it to others to manage their linguistic chess QMs. |
| #4 | If it's a full paragraph...it isn't a quote. |
| #5 |
If it made me laugh it's probably a winner. |
| #6 | If it made me laugh and cry it's almost definitely a winner. |
| #7 | If it seemed glaringly obvious, I tried to consider when it was said. Sometimes that works, sometimes...not. |
| #8 | Can I visualize at least one quote? Can I create a picture that captures the essence of a quote? |
For each QM, I will be adding my take on why QM #9 was better than QM #10, and #8 was better than #9, and so forth, with every post. That's found at Why Nimzo Earned the #2 Spot.
There might be a quote shootout, with five to ten additional quotes, if two QM candidates are evenly matched after their first ten quotes. This is unlike the 2024 World Blitz CC, and more like a golf tournament with a sudden death playoff. There can be no ties, but if it comes down to a coin flip, a spin of the roulette wheel, a random dart toss, or a roll of the dice to decide, so be it. Ultimately, I wield the scythe that separates and slots the candidates.
Tiebreaks will usually occur behind the scenes. I even considered posting the quotes from #1 and #2 simultaneously and deciding the winner based on a reader's poll. Not gonna.
Are there any flaws in your approach?
Away with thee!!
Sigh, of course there are. For instance, for most of the potential QMs I relied on quotes easily found in the wild, sayings that were gyrating around the meme-verse, t-shirts, and on the lips of players and coaches everywhere and everywhen. However, some of these folks wrote very quotable material, but for some reason their quotes have not spread broadly across the chess echosystem. ("Echosystem" is my second-newest contribution to the Urban Dictionary: Hello KevinSmithIdiot; echoverse is my most recent entry, comprising a system of echosystems.)
Okay, what's your point? You did a lot of research, so what?
In my circular way of getting to the point, I found that I turned up a lot of very quotable material going through a book for those whose sayings did not yet appear widely across the chess quote echosystem. I harbor hope my twelve QM posts will alleviate some of that lack of respect for people who are eminently quotable.
Still, the process left me to ponder whether an in-depth look into only some candidate's published works was an injustice to those who had plenty of quotes already bouncing around the echoverse. Bottom line, I chose not to do a page-by-page review of every candidate's works. One, I don't have books by all of them. Two, I don't have an infinite amount of time and energy.
To double down, I'm not going to change my approach. As a character said in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5, "So it goes."
Why Nimzowitsch Earned the #2 Spot
But the question I must answer to be consistent (even though Emerson wrote that "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.") is why Nimzowitsch enters the QM HoF at a higher position than Tarrasch. Will it suffice to say that Nimzowitsch comes before Tarrasch alphabetically? Sigh, I suspected not.
Okay, despite my contention that logic is how we rationalize decisions already made, I'll press ahead with some "reasoning", which is like seasoning in that it should add flavor that covers up any flaws in an otherwise brilliant masterpiece of baking. (Heaven forfend that I should cook the books, but there are limits to my ability to persuade with my opinions, however noble my inspiration.)
This is perhaps too subtle, mea culpa. Tarrasch was a brilliant quotologist, but imo the best of his best struck me as heavily weighted towards the sardonic or tongue-in-cheek; even his self-effacing comments tickled a wordmeister's fancy. Nimzowitsch achieved that as well, but also advanced theory and (from the samples I found) delved into the psychology of chess combatants. To be honest, this was one of the tough calls, and if many of the quotes attributed to Tarrasch could credibly be sourced to him, the scales might well have tipped in his favor.
Reminder About Reader Questions
Many of these questions will change with every entry in the QM Top Ten posts. But that seems kind of obvious.🤣
| Do you think Nimzowitsch was a good choice for the number #2 spot? Enthusiastic "YES!!" responses will be received with applause. |
| Who do you think will take the number one spot? Lots of choices left...take your best shot. |
In the table below I'll track responses.
| Question | Your Votes (last updated 0700 EST 8 Nov 2025) |
| 1 | Yes!! (2) Yes! (#), Yes (#), No (#), NO!! (2 votes--"he was supposed to be #1!" and "Tal was the correct answer!"), Maybe (#), huh? (#) |
| 2 | Lakdawala (1), Lasker (2), Znosko-Borovsky (1), I have no idea (#), Other (#), No response (hundreds...sigh. Where's that good-natured competitive streak?) |
Short, sweet, surely spellbinding! Well, that's the goal. Ultimately, if someone besides me reads these, I'll consider the success box checked. [I'm also waiting for the first person to let me know which blog in the series used a different word in the first sentence of this paragraph.😉😎]
If you enjoyed this, please come back to see who was ranked #1...and then a special edition with quotes from all the QMs, including those who didn't make my Top Ten, but about whom you might have your own opinions on where they should have fallen.
Cheers!
Kevin
Chess books should be used as we use glasses: to assist the sight, although some players make use of them as if they conferred sight. – José Raúl Capablanca Chess Quotes - Theory
Not infrequently … the theoretical is a synonym of the stereotyped. For the 'theoretical' in chess is nothing more than that which can be found in the textbooks and to which players try to conform because they cannot think up anything better or equal, anything original. – Mikhail Chigorin Chess Quotes - Theory
Despite the development of chess theory, there is much that remains secret and unexplored in chess. – Vasily Smyslov Chess Quotes - Theory
Prior Blogs in the Quote Master Series
ANNOUNCMENT! The Top Ten Chess Quotemasters (QMs)
Chess QuoteMasters #10: GM Andrew Soltis
Chess QuoteMasters #9: GM Rudolf Spielmann
Chess QuoteMasters #8: GM Garry Kasparov
Chess QuoteMasters #7: GM David Bronstein
Chess QuoteMasters #6: IM Jeremy Silman
Chess Quotemasters #5: GM Robert (Bobby) James Fischer
Chess QuoteMasters #4: GM Mikhail Tal
Chess QuoteMasters #3: Siegbert Tarrasch
