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Minority attack: the minority goes on the attack

At a glance

The minority attack is an attack with fewer pawns against a pawn majority, usually two against three on the queenside. The modern term does not come from Aaron Nimzowitsch. Nimzowitsch fights a majority mainly by restraining and blockading it. At the board, the attack should create a weak pawn in your opponent’s camp, which your pieces then attack.

In short

Count the pawns on the queenside. If you have two pawns there and your opponent has three, you have a minority. In a minority attack, you send them forward to create a weakness in the enemy pawn structure. Whether a passed pawn can also arise depends on the position.

That is the idea of the minority attack. Your b-pawn advances until it attacks an enemy pawn. After the exchange, your opponent is often left with a weak pawn. Your rooks and minor pieces then play against it.

The word minority attack does not appear in Nimzowitsch’s main works. When he writes about an enemy majority, he advises something else. You slow its pawns down until you can blockade them. He calls this restraint.

Both ways answer the same question: what do you do against a majority? Restraint holds it in place before a passed pawn appears. The minority attack attacks it and creates a weakness there. The articles on the pawn majority and on restraint explain more.

Start with lesson 34. There you restrain and blockade a majority, as Nimzowitsch shows. In Nimzowitsch – Romi you see the typical pawn structure for a minority attack.

Summarised by the editors in their own words. This is not a quotation.

An example from the course

In Nimzowitsch – Romi, the typical situation arises after 6.cxd5 exd5. On the queenside White has the pawns on a2 and b2, Black the pawns on a7, b7 and c6. A minority attack would be conceivable here. But Nimzowitsch castles queenside and later advances with his pawns in the centre.

Today’s view

Today the minority attack is regarded as a proven plan, especially in the Queen’s Gambit when White exchanges early on d5. Whether it succeeds depends on where the pieces stand. So a majority is not an advantage in every position.

Where to find it in Nimzowitsch