In the same spirit as the Logical Chess games, I will be going through the illustrative games in Nimzowitsch, and seeing how well the games stand up to the modern day theory and modern engines.

Before we start, here are a few useful resources relating to this book:

Games annotated by Nimzowitsch: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?annotatedby=10249

My System video series by Gambit Bandit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLrNC9Rskww&list=PLW-ubDuosu7UKDXI6KF7XIMdzaStaVEIL

Opinions of GM Jesse Kraai, IM Kostya Kavutskiy and IM David Pruess on My System and Chess Praxis (1 hour in) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRETstfHyDE

Kostya rates it as his 14th best classic book, but also calls it one of the most overrated books and says if your main goal is to get good at chess to read John Watson's Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy instead. That is a book that I don't have, but I have read at least the first chapter of the book online, in which Watson writes:

"How many of us learned our general middlegame principles from, say, Lasker or Nimzowitsch, or from the newer, but hardly contemporary, works of Euwe and Kramer, Romanovsky, or Pachman? In the United States, to this day, the most popular of these traditional sources is Nimzowitsch's My System, a book written in 1925! However brilliant, readable, and ahead-of-its-time that book is (and it is all those things), one has to wonder that we don't have any number of more advanced and updated works of its kind. Has the theory of the middlegame gone nowhere in the last 68 years?"

Watson goes on to praise Dvoretsky's 'analytical approach' and answers the question of whether modern chess is less principled by arguing that there are new principles in modern play but they are rarely explicitly stated like the traditional chess principles. Watson asserts that "the modern player derives his perspective and intuition from the detailed analysis of great numbers of positions."

(These arguments remind me of some of the dilemmas that I had while reading Chernev's explicit principles in his Logical Chess book.)

Watson also writes "one could argue (and it has been said) that Nimzowitsch more often won his games by superior calculation and even trickery than by application of his principles. But the enormity of his achievement resides in something else entirely; it is in transforming the underlying, implicit principles of the chess played up to his time into an explicit, conscious part of modern chess-players thought."

Quite a lot of Watson's book focuses on Nimzowitsch, how he affected thinking at the time, and how chess theory has moved on after his death. So it might be a good book to read after My System and I will probably pick it up sometime in the not too distant future. I would not recommend Watson's book to beginners, or to players who have not yet read My System.

All of the following games feature at the end of chapter 3 in the book. The main points made in the book up to this point are (paraphrased in simple language):

The Center and Development
A pawns move must be regarded as a developing move, merely as an aid to development
In the open game, rapidity of development is the supreme principle
Aim to exchange with a gain of tempo
Liquidating the board (by exchanges) is often the best idea when behind in development
Don't waste tempo grabbing pawns in the opening
Games/examples from chapter 1: https://www.chess.com/library/collections/aron-nimzowitsch-my-system-2hG1bMYLn
Open Files
Play raiding moves and enveloping maneuvers, especially on the 7th and 8th ranks
Outposts have a lot of value, forming the basis for attacks
Games/Examples from Chapter 2: https://www.chess.com/library/collections/aron-nimzowitsch-my-system-chapter-2-2mKD4U2wG
Seventh and Eight Ranks
Attack with the rook from the rear
There are 5 special cases:
1. The absolute 7th rank, with passed pawns
2. Doubled rooks giving perpetual check
3. The drawing mechanism with rook + knight
4. The marauding raid on the 7th rank
5. Combined play on the 7th and 8th ranks (enveloping maneuver in the corner)
Games/Examples from Chapter 3: https://www.chess.com/library/collections/nimzowitsch-my-system-the-elements-chapter-3-2WPupEMRY

Inevitably some context is lost from the above simplified points, so watch the Gambit Bandit videos or read the book, and take a look at the examples if the above doesn't make sense

Game 1
Nimzowitsch - Alapin
Vilnius 1912
French Defense

https://www.chess.com/openings/French-Defense-Classical-Delayed-Exchange-Variation

The analysis engine is not kind on Alapin's play in this game, giving him a CAPS score of 10% to Nimzowitsch's 97%.

However different moves are highlighted as mistakes. Whereas Nimzowitsch criticizes the pawn grab on move 9, the computer rates this as an excellent move, an it is move 10 that the computer says is a mistake. 10...Qh3 is calculated to be more than a pawn's worth better, and nearly equalizes (+0.55) whereas 10...Qg6 gives White a +2.31 advantage.

The engine also highlights Black's moves 12 and 13 as mistakes, with the best alternatives 12...Nd7 and 13...Be7

14...Qxf6 is a blunder and Nimzowitsch missed an even faster checkmate 15...bxc616.Rhe1+Be617.Qd7#

Game 2
Teichmann - Nimzowitsch
Kalabad 1911
Philidor Defense

https://www.chess.com/openings/Philidor-Defense-Hanham-Lion-Variation...6.O-O-O-O-7.Qe2-c6-8.a4

Nimzowitsch made a mistake followed by blunder which turned an even game into a losing one for him.

55...Ke7 is a mistake and 5...Kg8 should have been played instead.

Then 57...c5 is a blunder, with 57...Be2 the best alternative. However, the White pawn is almost certainly going to promote anyway so the evaluations scores here are not so relevant.

Teichmann played an excellent game here, making no mistakes or inaccuracies.

Nimzowitsch Chess Club

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