Spongey's Blog

"... playing over lots of annotated master games is extremely helpful. ... Despite the obvious advantages of occasionally going to the extreme, I suggest a norm of getting out a chessboard, playing each move, reading what the author has to say about the move, and then making the next move. At this rate, it should only take 20-40 minutes to play over an annotated game. I am often asked, 'But should I play out all the analysis lines?' The answer is, 'Of course, if you want to, but it is not absolutely necessary.' I would play out any analysis line that answers a question you don’t understand. For example, if you wonder why one player did not capture a pawn, and the variation explains it, then by all means play out the line (use a separate board for analysis moves if that makes things easier or quicker). At 20-40 minutes per game you should be able to go through most game collection books in a reasonable amount of time. ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2005)

https://web.archive.org/web/20140627023809/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman50.pdf

One can get some idea of the lasting scope of the respect for My System by looking at:
https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-best-chess-books-ever
Still, it might be noted that My System apparently did not occur to GM Yasser Seirawan as something to include in his list of personal favorites, and Aaron Nimzowitsch was not identified by the GM as a very worthy author.

https://www.chess.com/blog/RoaringPawn/an-open-letter-to-the-four-time-us-chess-champion-gm-yasser-seirawan

https://www.chess.com/blog/GMYAZ/open-letter-response-user-radovics-letter-to-me

My System has accumulated some direct negative commentary over the years.
"... I found [the books of Aaron Nimzowitsch to be] very difficult to read or understand. ... [Nimzowitsch: A Reappraisal by Raymond Keene explains his] thinking and influence on the modern game in a far more lucid and accessible way. ... The books that are most highly thought of are not necessarily the most useful. Go with those that you find to be readable; ..." - GM Nigel Davies (2010)
In 2016, IM pfren wrote:
"My System is an iconoclastic book. A lot of things in there is sheer provocation, and it does need an expereienced player to know what exactly must be taken at its face value.
I love 'My System', and I have read it cover to cover one dozen times, but suggesting it to a class player is an entirely different matter."
Also: "[Some things] ARE wrong, and it's not easy for a non-advanced player to discover those wrong claims.
Nigel Short has claimed that 'My System' should be banned. Stratos Grivas says that the book is very bad. I don't share their opinion, but I am pretty sure that there are more useful reads for class players out there."
Although he is a fan of My System, IM John Watson similarly acknowledged (2013) that:
"... Not everything in it has stood the test of time, ..."
http://theweekinchess.com/john-watson-reviews/john-watson-book-review-108-of-eplus-books-part-2-nimzowitsch-classics
One last point to keep in mind is that, even if My System would eventually help a player, it might not necessarily be helpful to a player now.
"... Just because a book contains lots of information that you don’t know, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be extremely helpful in making you better at this point in your chess development. ..." - Dan Heisman (2001)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140626180930/http://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman06.pdf
A My System sample can be seen at:

https://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/MySystem-excerpt.pdf

A Chess Praxis sample can be seen at:

https://www.qualitychess.co.uk/ebooks/ChessPraxis-excerpt.pdf

Various samples:

https://www.newinchess.com/media/wysiwyg/product_pdf/9027.pdf

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/for-beginners-chess-resources-for-beginners-and-beyond?page=3

RussBell wrote (October 1, 2019):

The following is Yasser Seirawan's Introduction to the Lou Hays 21st Century Edition of Aron Nimzowitsch's "My System", published November 1991.  In this introduction he describes his earlier misgivings regarding the book, then continues by praising not only the Lou Hays edition of the book, but "My System" in general....(note particularly his comments in the third from the last paragraph ... ["This then is the strength of My System. It is a book that provokes you to think differently about chess. It challenges you to consider a different approach and urges you to prove or refute Nimzowitsch's ideas. It is also a book that you can read and reread, each time coming away with different lessons and insights, leading to a deeper understanding of the game." - GM Yasser Seirawan (1991)]

...

The following is a scathing criticism of Nimzowitsch's "My System" by Yasser Seirawan (penned in 2018, in response to an open criticism of his apparently prior vocal criticisms of Nimzowitsch, and his book)...

https://www.chess.com/blog/GMYAZ/open-letter-response-user-radovics-letter-to-me

So what are we to make of it - on the one hand Seirawan praises Nimzowitsch and his book, then later excoriates them both....

You be the judge...

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/which-book-should-i-read-first

RussBell wrote (October 14, 2019):

There is a huge difference in (english) readability between the translation of the Quality Chess edition of "My System" and the translation of the Hays Publishing 21st Century Edition of the book.  The Quality Chess Edition attempts to be faithful to, and preserve the original pedantic writing style of Nimzowitsch, whereas the Hays translation is rendered in modern english, making it a much easier read. ...

You can use the Amazon's "Look Inside" feature of the Hays edition here to compare its writing/translation style with that of the Quality Chess excerpts/samples from Spongey's post above (a portion of Yasser Seirawan's introduction to the book is also reproduced)...

https://www.amazon.com/My-System-Century-Aron-Nimzowitsch/dp/1880673851/ref=sr_1_3?crid=QQIYFYXQIJKK&keywords=my+system+aron+nimzowitsch&qid=1571075835&s=books&sprefix=my+system%2Caps%2C204&sr=1-3

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/is-the-book-quotmy-systemquot-worth-getting?page=11

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/the-backyard-professor?page=57

"... many of the lines one sees played at club level are gambits, which lead to the kind of exciting open play that many players find attractive. ... Openings such as the Blackmar-Diemar Gambit, Albin Counter-Gambit, Latvian Gambit, etc., are all played regularly at club and league level, ... there is much to be said for playing such systems at lower levels of play, particularly if you enjoy playing sharp attacking lines. Many players find it uncomfortable to defend against an opponent who is prepared to sacrifice material in return for speculative attacking chances. In such positions, the cost of a single error is much higher than in quieter openings. If you make a mistake in a typical Reti Opening middlegame, you may end up getting a small positional disadvantage, but if you make a similar mistake in the sort of wild tactical positions which often arise from gambits, you are quite likely to find yourself being mated, or losing a substantial amount of material. ..." - FM Steve Giddins (2003)

"... what then is one to make of Laszlo Polgar's bold claim that genius is made and not born? ... It is one thing when the pupils share the same genes as their university-educated teachers, it is another thing altogether when they do not. ... Nowadays it is popularly assumed that 10,000 hours are necessary to master any difficult subject. People evidently learn at very different speeds, so it is implausible to assume that the same conveniently rounded figure applies to everyone. If industry alone determined success, Portisch and Polugaevsky would have been World Champions. ..." - GM Nigel Short (2017)

Is anyone else scrolling past the slabs of dense text without bothering to read them?

Spongebob is a good guy but long reams of text can be tedious to read, he needs to put more of himself into his blog, to express himself more.  This human element cannot be over emphasised.  

Needs more book cover images. everybody loves book covers, to some degree

I do

otherwise..

IM Skint

It's Spongey's BLOG!

Nobody is forcing anybody to read it.

Some people like to read Arthur Conan Doyle , and some like to read Herman Melville.

Spongy leans torward the Hermin Melville crowd.

25% is Russbells blog to be honest.

Thank you very much for the blog @kindaspongey! Love it!

Nobody put Wikipedia in charge of opening terminology. This sort of issue has come up before. A similar discussion took place at:

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/sicilian-defense-closed-variation-3?page=2

(Whether or not the Closed Sicilian was defined by 1 e4 c5 2 Nc3.)

If I remember correctly, there was another argument over whether or not the Smith-Moira was defined by 1 e4 c5 2 d4.

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/why-is-the-smith-morra-called-a-gambit

At https://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-analysis/followed-opening-principles-still-lost-unsure-what-i-did-wrong?page=2

the discussion briefly became one over whether or not 1 e4 g6 was the Modern Defense.

I think that the main culprit is computer software that has somewhat simplified opening terminology, changing it from the way that it has been viewed by many. Computer sources are apt to simplify and approximate actual human usage because it is pretty hard for computers to duplicate it. Nobody is an appointed terminology authority, but titled players are more apt to have an idea about what helps to convey important chess concepts to each other. Since they are also the ones who do most of the chess writing, it seems to me that it might be sensible to try to be in tune with the way they use language.