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- “The World Champion that never was”
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- Known to most as “The Father of Hypermodern Chess Theory,” Aron
Nimzovich was born on November 6, 1886 in Riga, Latvia. At the age
of 8 Nimzovich was taught to play chess by his father, a merchant
of considerable intelligence and prowess, who’s love for the arts,
poetry and chess set quite a good example for Nimzovich. And its
no wonder little Aron grew up to be the chess player that he was,
for he grew up in a quite enriched environment, partially due to
his father’s considerable culture,
and partially because of Riga’s very lively atmosphere which
nurtured Nimzovich’s playing ability, for in Riga everyone loved
to play chess. An interesting thing to note would be that in later
years the Riga players made quite a substantial name for themselves
in the chess world with their impeccable endgame and amazing success
in correspondence play.
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3
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- Nimzovich, unlike most famous players, got involved in chess at
a later age (17), and his style of play reflected that. For the
most part Aron’s early games were purely combinative, but for the
time and place combinations were quite logical, for Steinitz’s theories
on chess were strange to most players, and Morphy’s and Andressen’s
brilliant sacrifices were also beyond most players grasp, so whatever
Nimzovich was to learn, he had to learn by himself. Remember, back
in those days chess books were few in number, and good books fewer
still.
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4
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- Finally after laboring away for a year studying chess, Nimzovich
got his big chance to show off his skills. After his father had
sent him to Germany for his university studies, there came to the
country two big chess tournaments, one in 1904 and one in 1905.
The 1904 “A” tournament at Coburg was his first opportunity to see
some of the true chess greats of the time in action: Maroczy, Tchigorin,
Marshall and Janowski. Interesting enough, the youngsters he played
in these tournaments turned out to be almost as famous as him in
latter years: Spielmann, Vidmar, Duras, Bernstein, Tartakover, Rubinstein
and many others.
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- Unfortunately Nimzovich’s score in these two early tournaments
was not impressive at all. He did fairly well at Coburg, but completely
and utterly bombed at Barmen. Everyone could see how talented Nimzovich
was, but he was too sensitive, too inexperienced, too unseasoned,
too impetuous, and to be truthful, too temperamental.
- However, this is just what Aron needed, for after experiencing
these crushing defeats Nimzovich developed the foundations of what
he would later be famous for: his system
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6
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- By 1906, at age 20, Nimzovich was considered a top rank master.
That year there was a tournament in Munich, in which he placed first,
beating out respected players such as Spielmann and Cohn. In 1907
though, his true colors shined through in a tournament at Ostend
with 29 players, in which he tied for third place with Mieses, a
half a point behind the winners of the tournament Rubinstein and
Bernstein. Also in 1906 Nimzovich played in an event at Carlbad,
which was considered a stronger tournament than the one at Ostend,
which he tied for fourth with Schlechter.
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- In 1910 Nimzovich had an extraordinary start in the tournament
at Hamburg, unfortunately losses to Schlechter and Duras left Aron
with the third place trophy instead of the first. The following
year at San Sebastian (one would note this is the tournament in
which Capablanca made his sensational debut) Nimzovich tied for
fifth with well known chess moguls Tarrasch and Schlecter. In the
well respected Carlsbad tournament of the same year, Nimzovich tied
for fifth with the U.S. chess champion Marshall.
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- The following year, at San Sebastian he tied Spielmann for second
prize, narrowly missing first prize which was given to Rubenstein.
As the story goes the outcome of the tournament relied on the game
between Nimzovich and Rubinstein, the players were so nervous in
fact that first Nimzovich and then Rubinstein missed a mate in two!
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- Finally, in 1913, a milestone was hit in Nimzovich’s career,
he released several articles on his system and launched a powerful
argument against the “modernism” of Tarrasch’s Moderne Schachpartie.
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- Sadly Nimzovich was overlooked in his ideas, for which many people
snickered and laughed at, arguing his system was made to conceal
his ignorance on chess theory. The
lack of mainstream interest in Nimzovich’s ideas were very interesting
when we note that the younger players such as Alekhine, Reti, and
Tartakover were more than consumed with the new ideas.
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- Nimzovich will always be remembered for his chess and unfortunately,
he has been immortalized with one single temper outbreak. On one
occasion in Berlin, having missed the first prize by losing to Saemisch,
Nimzovich got up on a table and shouted, "Why must I lose to
this idiot?” (Kids unless you want to be remembered your whole life
for such a stupid action..do not be a sore loser like Nimzo was.)
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- 1914, Nimzovich crashes and burns in the historical St. Petersburg
tournament; the elimination rule of the event completely caught
Nimzovich off guard, utterly destroying his chances at winning.
Then a tragic event occurred: World War I. During this time of havoc
Nimzovich’s chess activities completely stopped, only to pick up
in 1920. As the twenties rolled around Nimzovich made his residence
in Copenhagen, which apparently went over well with the people of
the city for they welcomed him with open arms. After his change
of residency Nimzovich played an extraordinary amount of chess in
the Scandinavian countries, which in time he would contribute substantially
to the development of a school of masters in Sweden.
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- When civil war broke out in Russia around 1917, Nimzovich was
trapped in the Baltic war zone between the rightists and leftists.
He escaped forced service in one of the armies by complaining so
insistently about a fly on his head that they finally left the "madman"
alone. The "madman" sneaked out and made his way to Berlin,
where he presented himself as Arnold Nimzovich.
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- Finally in 1925 Nimzovich reappeared on the international chess
scene playing in the Baden-Baden tournament, but his success in
such tournaments was limited to several intriguing games.
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- In the late twenties something that would change his image in
the chess world forever occurred, Aron Nimzovich published the holy
bible of all chess books: My System. From that time until the time
present, My System has been on almost every grandmasters top 3 list
of favorite chess books, and there’s quite a good reason for that.
In his book, My System, Nimzovich completely revolutionized the
chess world, putting the emphasis on fighting chess instead of breaking
it down scientifically. The main strategies that Nimzovitch came
up with are (1) instead of occupying the critical center squares
with pawns and/or pieces, to attack them from far away with knights
or fianchettoed bishops, (2) to blockade isolated pawns with knights
(3) Over-protection. These three ideas were so radical at the time
that only a few chess players took them seriously. But after seeing
Niemzowitsch win tournament after tournament, chess players took
notice. Through his book he was able to show people that chess was
a battlefield were each player was fighting for his life, not just
some mere thing that should be analyzed for its potency such as
moldy bread, Nimzovich truly put the joy back into chess with this
astounding book.
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- The most famous game in Nimzovich’s arsenal, and in fact one
of the most famous game of all time, The Immortal Zugzwang game,
is considered the epitome of what Zugzwang is. The term Zugzwang
is used to describe a position where an opponent must make a move,
and no matter what, that move will be bad. Definitely worth checking
out: The Immortal Zugzwang Game
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- Their once lived a man named Hans Kmoch, who through his journeys
met, and became friends with some of the greatest players in all
of chess history. He wrote about his journeys in a manuscript and
had this to say about Nimzovich: “The man was not exactly crazy,
but he did have certain marked peculiarities, which I had ample
opportunity to observe during the nine years I knew him. We first
met at Baden-Baden in 1925 and quickly became good friends, when
I innocently told him how much I had enjoyed the game he had won
against Rosselli. Nimzovich suffered from the delusion that he was
unappreciated and that the reason was malice. All it took to make
him blossom, as I later learned, was a little praise. 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.”
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- 6 years after meeting Nimzovich, Hans Kmoch (you know, that guy
from the last slide) was the tournament director at the Bled Tournament,
and wrote a quite interesting account of what Nimzovich did at the
event: “Nimzovich had a keen sense of humor and enjoyed a good laugh,
even at his own expense. This once helped me save a potentially
embarrassing situation at the Bled tournament of 1931. Yugoslavia
was then a kingdom, and Bled was the summer residence of the royal
family. The queen and her children were in fact living there while
the tournament was in progress, and the tournament committee was
nervously on the alert in case Her Majesty might drop in. Considering
the circumstances, the committee was mortified when Nimzovich, who
that day had a bye, sauntered into the playing room wearing only
a bathrobe, and refused to leave. Imagine a chess player presenting
himself almost naked to the queen! I happened to be the tournament
director, and the committee came to me desperately seeking help.
I grabbed Nimzovich gently by the neck and gave him a boot in the
behind as I propelled him toward the door. Fortunately, he saw the
humor in the situation and left at once, laughing all the way.”
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- The time was 1934, the place Kissingin, Germany. Right in a time
when the Nazi political party was coming into power anti-Semitism
was prevalent throughout Germany and it was unthinkable that a Jew,
(Nimzovich) would want to travel to a country that, at the time,
was known to be racist against Jews. But Nimzovich was determined
to go to the Kissingen tournament Jew or no Jew. Hans Kmoch was
at the tournament and gave this startling account of Nimzovich’s
actions: “Nimzovich caused several incidents during that 1934 match,
all of them harmless except one. And for a moment, that one was
hair-raisingly serious. One day when a high officer in a Nazi uniform
entered the press room, Nimzovich brusquely demanded to see his
credentials. When the perplexed officer didn't answer at once, Nimzovich
asked him to leave. The other reporters, including myself, were
horrified, expecting the Nazi to react violently after receiving
such an order from a Jew. But, amazingly, nothing happened. The
officer simply left.” Talk about narrowly averting disaster.
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- On march 16, 1935, at the age of 48, the world lost an underappreciated
chess genius. Aron died at the great Moscow Tournament, where many
of his chess disciples were making a name for themselves. He left
this world at a time when the chess scene had just finally recognized
him as the great man he was, but death snatched from him the ability
to savor his success which would have made up for the years of criticism
that he had experienced. Aron Nimzovich will be remembered throughout
chess history, and his life and literature, even in death, shall
keep having the great impact that it has had for the last 70 years,
and giving as much pleasure to future generations as it caused him
anguish.
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Notes
