Chess strategy for club players

Step 1: The elements of “My System”

1. Lesson 19: A blockade does not hold by itself

   You recognize how the opponent wants to drive a blockader away, and you prevent it.

2. Lesson 30: Why you blockade a passed pawn

   You understand why it is not enough to control the square in front of a passed pawn from a distance, and you place a piece directly in front of it.

3. Lesson 20: Pawns help each other

   You recognize the base and the tip of a pawn chain and attack the chain at its base.

4. Lesson 37: The outpost

   You place a piece on a square of an open file that your pawn controls.

5. Lesson 38: The active rook

   You place your rook actively in the endgame, rather than using it only to protect your pawns.

Step 2: Positional play

1. Lesson 21: What does your opponent want?

   Before you move, you ask what your opponent wants and prevent a dangerous plan.

2. Lesson 28: Overprotecting important points

   You protect an important point with several pieces and later also use those pieces to attack.

3. Lesson 29: Attacking a weakness from two sides

   You attack a weakness from different sides in turn, until the defense can no longer keep up.

4. Lesson 34: Restraining in time

   You recognize attacking chances from advanced pawns even when pawn numbers are equal, and look for ways to restrain or blockade them in time.

5. Lesson 43: Strong points as a source of energy

   You recognize when extra protection improves a piece and when it costs time without preventing a plan.

Step 3: Pawn structures and the bishop pair

1. Lesson 27: The isolani

   You recognize an isolated pawn, place a piece in front of it and protect your own with a piece.

2. Lesson 35: Hanging pawns

   You recognize hanging pawns and know when one of them advances so that the other protects it.

3. Lesson 26: Doubled pawns

   You recognize doubled pawns and attack them, or the pawns next to them, with a pawn.

4. Lesson 41: The bishop pair

   You use two bishops together so that they command squares of both colors.

Games to play through

• Johner – Nimzowitsch, Dresden 1926

  Nimzowitsch fixes a pawn on e4 and restrains the white pawns on the kingside. Then he calmly prepares an attack on the white king.

• Sämisch – Nimzowitsch, Copenhagen 1923

  Here Nimzowitsch plans over several moves how to use a strong square. Then he ties White up so tightly that in the end every white move does harm. He himself compared the game with the famous “Immortal Game”.

• Nimzowitsch – Salwe, Carlsbad 1911

  In this game White occupies the square in front of a black pawn and holds it with one new piece after another. In the end a bishop blockades the black passed pawn.

For your training

• In the source section of each lesson, read what Nimzowitsch himself wrote.
• Compare his verdict with the present-day view in the library.
• Play through the annotated games to the end, even without a decision point.
• Take one of your own games and look for a blockade, an outpost and overprotection.