Game analysis (Depth 30):

White Black

CAPS 85.6% 89.1%
Best 25 26
Excellent 12 15
Good 5 6
Inaccuracies 6 5
Mistakes 2 0
Blunders 1 0

Video by IM Miodrag 'The Butcher' Perunovic, who examines this game from move 22, with the theme of playing against the hanging pawns.

Game 11 is the end of Chapter 3 in the book.

Chapter 4 is titled The Passed Pawn, and Nimzowitsch's rules are:

• Every sound, uncompromised pawn majority, must be able to generate a passed pawn
• The candidate pawn has precedence
• The advance of a passed pawn from the ideal position must take place only at that moment when a strong blockade on the part of the opponent need not be feared, as it cannot be carried out
• The intended king journey must be carefully prepared before the ensuing diversionary sacrifice (or exchange). When possible, zugzwang should be used. Advance the fellow traveller! Entice the impediments to its journey (the enemy pawns on the wing to which the king will journey) to advance! All this must be carried out prior to the diversionary move!

The chapter discusses blockading passed pawns i.e. preventing them from promoting. Nimzowitsch says "The passed pawn is a criminal that belongs under lock and key. Tepid measures, such as police surveillance, are not enough!"

There are some short examples from the games

• Te Kolste - Nimzowitsch, 1925

• Alekhine-Treybal
• Nimzowitsch-Rubinstein 1925

• Tarrasch-Berger, Breslau 1889

• Nimzowitsch-Alapin, St Petersburg 1914

• Nimzowitsch-Amateur, Nuremberg 1904
• Nimzowitsch-Nilsson, Nordic Masters' Tournament 1924

• which are shown in this video:

Then to illustrate these ideas we see Nimzowitsch's game against Leonhardt

This chapter also features this win over Gottschall:

Nice work : )

Chapter 5 On Exchanging

This is a short chapter featuring positions from the following games:

• Dr Bernstein - Dr Perlis, St Petersburg 1909
• Rosselli - Rubinstein, 1925

On this game Nimzowitsch notes 21...Rxe3 is the only reasonable move. He says the decisive breakthrough is 55...f4!

• Nimzwotsch - Druwa, Riga 1919 Coffee-house game played at odds, Nimzowitsch lists the last 10 moves of the game.

The main rules on exchanging are to exchange when:

1. We exchange in order to occupy (or perhaps to open) a file without loss of time
2. We destroy a defender by exchanging
3. We exchange so as not to lose time by retreating
4. The attacked piece seeks to sell its life as dearly as possible

Chapter 6 - The Elements of Endgame Strategy

This chapter features positions from the following games:

• Nimzowitsch - Jacobsen, Copenhagen 1923

• Capablanca - Martinez, Buenos Aires 1914

• Nimzowitsch - Spielmann 1912

In this game Nimzowitsch points to moves 20.Bf5! to 26.Bxe5 transitioning into the endgame with a temporary pawn superiority but also a long-term centralized bishop.

• Post - Alekhine

• Cohn - Nimzowitsch 1906

The chapter concludes with move 39 onwards until Nimzowitsch wins.

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Thanks Guys!

Chapter 7 The Pinned Piece

Nimozwitsch revisits Game 5 to discuss the aspects of the pin

There is the move 6.h3 is a prophylactic move made to prevent a pin on the knight with 6...Ng4. Similarly Black plays h6 to prevent a pin on his knight.

Move 25...Bg6 signifies the reactivation of the pin motif. What he is saying is some 20 moves later the weaknesses of the move h3 become an important part of Black's winning strategy. 

Nimozwitsch distinguishes wholly pinned and half-pinned pieces.

In this diagram the pawn is half-pinned and the knight is wholly pinned.

The three actors behind every pin are:

• the pinning piece
• the pinned enemy piece
• the piece standing behind the pinned piece

The chapter mentions the world's most famous minature game, Morphy vs Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard, Black uses an ineffective pin, Morphy has a better pin that facilitates castling long, followed by a 2nd pinned knight.

13.Rxd7 Rxd7 14.Rd1 is an example of an 'exchange combination' on the pin-square.

Next there is the important idea of delaying an exchange when you have a pin to force the other side to lose a tempo which, in an endgame can often be the difference between a win and a draw. Nimzowitsch calls this a tempo-winning combination.

Then there is a review of unpinning methods, with an example of when not to attack the pinning piece with a pawn (or in Nimzo parlance, 'putting the question'), and an example from E.Cohn-Nimzowitsch where it was a good idea to attack the pinning piece. The above video explains in more detail.

Later in the chapter he mentions Game 15, which we will get to soon.

Game 14