Point of attack: a pawn as a target

In short

Imagine this: Black has castled kingside and moved the pawn from h7 to h6. White now sends the g-pawn forward against h6. If it comes to an exchange, a white piece recaptures and the g-file is open. The pawn on h6 that the advance is aimed at is called the point of attack.

Nimzowitsch shows this picture in the chapter on the open file. The move to h6 was bad there, he writes, because White can then quickly get rid of the g-pawn. According to him, the file that gets opened is always the one next to the point of attack. One of your own pieces standing in the way afterwards hardly matters: a piece easily moves on, a pawn does not.

The defender has countermeasures. A piece that slows down the advance must first be driven away or exchanged by the attacker. As a last resort, the attacked pawn can move past the approaching pawn. But that only works if it is protected on its new square.

According to Nimzowitsch, a target for an attack should first be immobile. In the section on the outpost, he mentions how one of your own pawns helps to fix a point of attack. In the chapter on the pawn chain the word does not appear, but the thought is similar. There a pawn of the chain fixes the base, another pawn attacks it, and the rooks wait.

Lesson 11 shows you open files, lesson 20 a pawn attacking the base of a chain. In Lee – Nimzowitsch, the black pawns on the kingside advance together to lay bare the white pawn on g2. Nimzowitsch does not use the term point of attack there.

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

Tarrasch, Steinitz and the fear of pawn moves

Who coined the term? In “My System”, Nimzowitsch names Tarrasch as the one who gave it its name. In his essay about Steinitz, Tarrasch, himself and Alapin, however, he counts it among the new terms of Steinitz. Which statement is more accurate cannot be decided from the archive.

In the same essay he sums up one of Tarrasch’s teachings. Whoever defends on the kingside should not move a pawn there, or else the opponent gets a point of attack. In the supplement to “My System”, he argues against such a formal view. What matters, he says, is the inner value of the position, which the pawn skeleton determines.

In “Chess Praxis” he complains that many defenders fear a point of attack in their own camp too much. He sees this as a remnant of the old, formal way of thinking.

Today’s view

Today, too, an advanced pawn in front of the castled king is often seen as a target for an enemy pawn storm. The pawn move that attacks an enemy pawn is usually called a lever today. But only the concrete position shows whether a point of attack really does harm.

Where to find it in Nimzowitsch

• My System: I. Teil, 2.2 Die Entstehung (Geburt) der offenen Linie. Auf friedlichem Wege. Durch kriegerisches Vorgehen. Die Angriffsmarke (original text)

  How an open file comes about; the advance against the point of attack, a term from Tarrasch, using the example of a pawn on h6.

• 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

  The outpost on the open file; in passing, one of your own pawns helps to make a point of attack immobile.

• My System: I. Teil, 9.1 Allgemeines und Definitionen. Die Basis der Bauernkette. Die Idee der beiden getrennten Kriegsschauplätze original text not yet published

  Chain and base; the base is first fixed and then attacked with a pawn.

• My System: Nachtrag, 2. Die revolutionären Thesen original text not yet published

  The three revolutionary theses and the criticism of a formal view of elements such as the point of attack.

• Chess Praxis: 6.9 Die heroische Verteidigung original text not yet published

  On heroic defence; Nimzowitsch complains that defenders fear a point of attack in their own camp too much.

• Essays: Steinitz, Tarrasch, ich und … Alapin! original text not yet published

  Essay on Steinitz, Tarrasch and Alapin; the point of attack appears among the terms of Steinitz and in one of Tarrasch’s teachings.

In the course

• Clear paths for rooks
• Pawns help each other
• Lee – Nimzowitsch, Ostend 1907