The Jew Who Dined With Nazis

Aron Nimzowitsch rescued chess from the rigidity of doctrine that followed Steinitz’s reformation. Nimzowitsch taught the chess world new strategic principles and more creative ways of approaching the game. His theories were ridiculed and mocked at first, but the new vitality they brought to the board was adopted by more and more players. Today, Nimzowitsch’s hypermodern style has been vindicated.Nimzowitsch was born in 1886 in Riga, Latvia. His father, a Hasidic Jew, was a chess player of master strength. As a child, Aron occupied himself with the study of the Talmud. But after learning chess at age eight, he began to play seriously. By the early 20th century, Nimzowitsch was among the chess heavyweights. He became a Danish citizen in 1922. Like many players, Nimzowitsch had a peculiar streak. His most famous tantrum came when he jumped on a table after a loss and shouted, “Why must I lose to this idiot?” As his friend Hans Kmoch recalled: Nimzowitsch suffered from the delusion that he was unappreciated and that the reason was malice. His paranoia was most evident when he dined in company. He always thought he was served much smaller portions than everyone else. He didn’t care about the actual amount but only about the imagined affront. I once suggested that he and I order what the other actually wanted and, when the food was served, exchange plates. After we had done so, he shook his head in disbelief, still thinking that he had received the smaller portion. In one tournament in Bled, Yugoslavia, Nimzowitsch showed up at the playing hall in only a bathrobe. As the queen of Yugoslavia was due any moment, Kmoch took his friend by the neck and kicked him out the door. Then there was the time that a doctor told Nimzowitsch to exercise more often, so he complied by doing calisthenics during games. According to grand master Reuben Fine, he actually stood on his head as he waited for his turn to move.With Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s, Europe became a much more dangerous place for Jews like Nimzowitsch. However, Nimzowitsch was confident because he was protected by three consulates: the Latvian, the Danish, and the Dutch (he worked for a newspaper in the Netherlands). He boasted of this protection to Reich Minister Hans Frank. This was the same Hans Frank who would later mass murder Jews in Poland, so Nimzowitsch was flirting with disaster.In 1934, Germany hosted the Alekhine-Bogoljubov world championship match, and Nimzowitsch followed the games as a reporter. One day, a high-ranking Nazi official entered the press room. Nimzowitsch demanded his credentials and when the Nazi failed to show them, the reporter ordered him out. The shocked onlookers fully expected the Nazi to fall on the Jew who dared boss him around. But the German simply left. Hans Frank also watched the games and invited the group to his villa for lunch. At the table, Nimzowitsch’s paranoia surfaced again, and he began complaining that his plate and knife were dirty. Opposite him, the future “Butcher of Poland” pretended not to hear. Nimzowitsch was lucky his boorishness didn’t get him killed. He died of pneumonia in 1935. The entire Nimzowitsch family, save for an older sister, was wiped out during the Holocaust.