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Pawn chain: attack at the base

At a glance

A pawn chain is a diagonal line of pawns, each with an enemy pawn standing in front of it. Aaron Nimzowitsch calls the rearmost pawn, which carries the others, the base. In “My System” he shows why you attack a chain at its base. At the board this helps you choose your plan: where do you attack, and where must you protect yourself?

In short

After 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 the white pawns on d4 and e5 stand diagonally one behind the other. Facing them are the black pawns on d5 and e6. Each chain pawn supports the next. Nimzowitsch calls the lowest one the base: for White that is d4, for Black e6.

For Nimzowitsch a chain creates two battlegrounds. One is the wing that your chain cramps; there you attack with pieces. The other is the base of the opponent’s chain; you attack it with a pawn.

Attack a chain at its base, not at its head. Nimzowitsch compares the chain to a house: whoever wants to blow it up starts with the foundations, not the decorations. If the base falls, the new base is next in line. In the end your own cramped pawns should be able to advance again.

For Nimzowitsch a chain is above all a blockade. The chain pawns hold up the enemy pawns like a blockader. If a chain pawn falls, a piece can take over its job. To the pawns that are held up, it makes no difference whether a pawn or a piece slows them down.

If the base is too well protected, you can transfer the attack. You push your attacking pawn one step further. That way the next pawn of the opponent’s chain becomes the new base, and it may be easier to shake. While doing so, do not forget that your own chain has a base too.

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

Overrunning or besieging

There are two ways of attacking the base. When overrunning, you attack the base again and again until the opponent breaks up the chain themselves. Then you drive away the pieces that take the pawns’ place. When besieging, you fix the base and attack it slowly with pieces.

Nimzowitsch stresses: at some point you must decide on one of the two ways. If you keep both open for too long, the opponent can break free.

To play through

In Lesson 20 you recognise base and head and attack a chain at its base. Lesson 28 shows how White protects the base of the pawn chain with several pieces.

In the game Nimzowitsch – Salwe the white chain pawns on d4 and e5 disappear one after the other. But white pieces occupy their squares and keep holding up the black pawns. Salwe’s attempt to free himself fails because he cannot drive these pieces away. Nimzowitsch saw the game as a first model example of his new teaching about the centre.

Against Székely, too, Nimzowitsch gives up the pawn on d4 early. In return he supports the pawn on e5 with rook, knight and queen.

Today’s view

Today, too, Black in this position of the French Defence usually attacks d4 first with the c-pawn. White then often supports the base with the pawn on c3. If d4 is well protected, Black later often attacks the head e5 with the f-pawn as well.

Nimzowitsch’s rule is therefore a good compass, but not a law for every position.

Where to find it in Nimzowitsch