Outpost: a piece with backing

In short

A white rook stands on the open d-file. Further up stands the black pawn on d6, and the pawn on c7 protects it. Charging at this pawn achieves little. But if a white knight stands on d5, where the pawn on e4 protects it, White has an outpost.

Nimzowitsch names two tasks. The outpost is a base for further attacks. At the same time it provokes a weakness: if Black drives the knight away with c6, no pawn protects d6 any more. Then the rook has a target.

The outpost does not get its strength from itself. It borrows it from the rook behind it and from the pawn beside it. Nimzowitsch compares it with a new newspaper: it needs money behind it and a party that supports it. If one of these is missing, the outpost loses almost all its importance.

At the edge of the board, a knight reaches only a few squares. There it is better for a rook to occupy the outpost. If the opponent exchanges it, the protecting pawn can recapture and become a passed pawn. Now the rook supports the pawn, no longer the other way round; Nimzowitsch calls this a swap of roles.

Lesson 37 practises the outpost step by step. At the end you put a rook on the outpost at the edge of the board. Lesson 11 first shows what an open file is.

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

An outpost as a threat

Sometimes an outpost works even before a piece stands there. Against Sämisch, Nimzowitsch prepares the square c4 with a6 and b5. Then a black knight sets off towards it. Nimzowitsch calls it a ghost.

Sämisch exchanges the knight before it reaches c4. This costs him time, because his own knight had already made two moves. So the mere threat has worked.

What Nimzowitsch calls an outpost

Nimzowitsch sticks strictly to his definition. Against Rabinowitsch, his knight stands on c5, protected by two pawns. Because the c-file is closed, he does not call it an outpost. Still, he finds it strong, because White can no longer drive it away with any pawn.

In “Chess Praxis” he applies the idea to diagonals. Against Tartakower he puts a knight on e5, which the pawn on f4 protects. He sees it as an outpost on the diagonal of his bishops: their power now has fixed targets.

Today’s view

For Nimzowitsch, an outpost needs an open file. Today, people usually speak of an outpost as soon as no enemy pawn can drive the piece away. By that standard, the knight against Rabinowitsch would be an outpost. But only the concrete position shows whether it is really strong.

Where to find it in Nimzowitsch

• My System: I. Teil, 2.6 Der Vorposten. Der Angriffsradius. Das Märlein von der Zeitschrift. Womit besetzt man den Vorposten in einer Mittellinie und womit den in einer Randlinie? Der Rollentausch und was dieser beweise original text not yet published

  Nimzowitsch defines the outpost, names its two tasks and explains why the file and the pawn belong to it, also at the edge of the board.

• My System: I. Teil, Kleines Schema zur offenen Linie original text not yet published

  The scheme assigns the knight outpost to the central files and the major-piece outpost to the edge files.

• My System: I. Teil, Partie-Beispiele zu den ersten drei Kapiteln (original text)

  Games with outposts, including Rabinowitsch – Nimzowitsch and Sämisch – Nimzowitsch with the outpost as a threat.

• Chess Praxis: 6.6 Der Läufer mit und ohne Vorposten original text not yet published

  Nimzowitsch transfers the outpost from the file to a bishop’s diagonal.

• Chess Praxis: Partie 95 (original text)

  Nimzowitsch – Tartakower: the knight on e5 as an outpost on a bishop’s diagonal.

In the course

• Clear paths for rooks
• The outpost
• Nimzowitsch – Tartakower, Carlsbad 1923
• Rabinowitsch – Nimzowitsch, Baden-Baden 1925
• Sämisch – Nimzowitsch, Copenhagen 1923