Overall mobility: pawns as a mobile group

In short

Look at a group of pawns advancing together. Often one stays behind while the others are already further forward. Nimzowitsch calls such a pawn backward. Many players want to get rid of it as quickly as possible.

Nimzowitsch is more relaxed about it. What matters to him is whether the pawn mass as a whole stays mobile, not every single pawn. The pawn that has stayed behind can even help: it supports the pawns in front of it like a helper in the background.

A mobile pawn mass can crush the opponent. Its pawns advance and take more and more room away from them. That is why Nimzowitsch sees the positional struggle as a struggle between mobility and restraint. One side wants to move its pawns, the other wants to slow them down.

But pawns do not advance on their own. In “Chess Praxis”, Nimzowitsch stresses: pieces must stand ready behind the pawns. They occupy the central squares that become free as the pawns advance. Only this contact gives the advance its power.

Conversely, Nimzowitsch warns: a pawn complex that cannot move any more can easily become a weakness. So with every pawn move, check whether your pawns can still advance as a group afterwards.

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

Seven pawns against eight

In Nimzowitsch against Olson, White gives up a pawn. Nimzowitsch writes that here seven white pawns were more mobile than eight black ones. In this way, he says, the idea triumphs over mere material.

In a game against Michel, Nimzowitsch deliberately leaves his backward d-pawn where it is. Instead he pushes the pawns on the e-, f- and g-files. He calls the result a pawn roller that can hardly be stopped.

To play through

Lesson 32 shows how dangerous a mobile majority in the centre is and how you slow it down. In lesson 34 you restrain a majority in time, before it starts marching. In Nimzowitsch against Romi, the white pawns advance in the centre, supported by rook and queen.

Today’s view

Today people usually speak more simply of mobile pawns or a mobile majority. Today, too, a backward pawn is not automatically considered a weakness. Whether it does harm only becomes clear in the concrete position.

Where to find it in Nimzowitsch

• My System: II. Teil, 1.4 Neben der Prophylaxe bildet die Idee der „Gesamtbeweglichkeit“ der Bauernmasse ein Hauptpostulat meiner Positionslehre original text not yet published

  Overall mobility as a main principle alongside prophylaxis: the positional struggle is a struggle between mobility and restraint, and a pawn that has stayed behind can support the others.

• My System: II. Teil, Partien zum 1. Kapitel original text not yet published

  Example games for the chapter, including Nimzowitsch against Michel on overall mobility and the warning about immobile pawn complexes.

• My System: II. Teil, Wege zur Aneignung des Positionsspiel original text not yet published

  A short outline for the chapter; the fourth point calls for overall mobility of the pawn mass instead of mobility of every single pawn.

• My System: Nachtrag, 5. Ausbau und Entwicklung der Schachrevolution in den Jahren 1914 bis 1926 original text not yet published

  Nimzowitsch against Olson: seven white pawns show greater overall mobility than eight black ones.

• Chess Praxis: 1.5 Bauernmasse (mobile) im Zentrum Wie der Kontakt zwischen den vorrückenden Zentralbauern und den das Vorgehen stützenden Figuren bewahrt wird original text not yet published

  How a mobile pawn mass in the centre keeps in contact with the pieces behind it.

In the course

• The majority in the centre
• Restraining in time
• Nimzowitsch – Olson, Copenhagen 1924
• Nimzowitsch – Romi, London 1927