Positional play: preventing instead of just attacking

In short

Many players believe every move must threaten something or parry a threat. Nimzowitsch calls this a harmful error in thinking. Waiting moves and quiet moves have their purpose too. A good positional move brings your pieces into contact with important points.

Many masters saw positional play mainly as collecting small advantages. Nimzowitsch gives this collecting only a minor role. More important for him is prevention: prophylaxis. What exactly it means is explained in the article on prophylaxis.

For him prophylaxis has two sides. Outwards, you prevent your opponent’s freeing pawn moves if they would really help them. Inwards, you keep your pieces in contact with your own important points. You protect these points with several pieces; Nimzowitsch calls this overprotection.

He also demands great respect for the centre. If you move your pieces to a wing too early, you leave the middle weak. It is better to bring the pieces to the middle; Nimzowitsch calls this centralising. And your pawns should stay mobile as a group, not each one on its own.

Start with Lesson 21, where you ask about your opponent’s plan. Lesson 25 shows how to answer a wing attack in the middle, and Lesson 28 shows overprotection. In Schlechter – Nimzowitsch, Black waits patiently and prevents one white plan after another.

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

From a single pawn to the whole board

Many ideas from the first part of the book come back in positional play, for example restraint and centralisation. There it was often about a single passed pawn. In positional play a whole wing sometimes has to be restrained. Nimzowitsch compares this with a piece of music for violin that is rewritten for a large orchestra.

As an example he gives his game against Johner. There restraint spreads to the whole board. You can play through the game in the course. In it Black restrains the white pawns on the kingside. After that Black calmly prepares an attack.

A move that neither threatens nor defends

An attacking player usually expects one of two replies: a defence or a counter-attack. The positional player catches the attacker out with a third kind of move. The positional player brings a piece into contact with a key point, and the attack fails.

Nimzowitsch tells of a casual game against a well-known amateur. The amateur expected both sides to storm the enemy king with their pawns. Whoever gets there first wins, or so he thought.

Nimzowitsch did not join the storm. He put a knight on a strong square in the middle and calls this a positional move. After that White stood clearly better. His lesson: do not always want to attack, but secure the position first.

Today’s view

Today positional play usually means playing for lasting advantages such as good squares, safe pawns and space. Collecting small advantages is part of it, even though Nimzowitsch thought it less important. Whether a quiet solution or an attack is better depends on the concrete position.

Where to find it in Nimzowitsch

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

  Overview of the chapter: Nimzowitsch’s view of positional play and the problem of the centre.

• My System: II. Teil, 1.1 Die wechselseitigen Beziehungen zwischen der Behandlung der Elemente einerseits und dem Positionsspiel andererseits original text not yet published

  How the ideas from “The elements” come back in positional play and broaden out, with the comparison to the orchestra.

• My System: II. Teil, 1.2 Über positionelle Gedanken - Schädlinge, deren Ausrottung in jedem Fall eine conditio sine qua non für die Erlernung des Positionsspiels bildet original text not yet published

  Two errors in thinking: that every move must achieve something immediate, and that positional play is mainly collecting small advantages.

• My System: II. Teil, 1.3 Meine neuartige Auffassung des Positionsspiels als solches: Das bekannte Akkumulieren geringfügiger Vorteile ist erst in zweiter (bis dritter) Linie bezeichnend; viel wesentlicher ist eine nach außen und innen hin betriebene Prophylaxe (Vorbeugung). Meine Neuheit der Überdeckung, Formulierung und Sinn derselben. original text not yet published

  Outward prophylaxis against freeing pawn moves, and inward prophylaxis by overprotecting your own important points.

• My System: II. Teil, 1.6 Worin hat das Leitmotiv der wahren Strategie zu bestehen? original text not yet published

  The leading idea of strategy: overprotecting the centre and centralising, instead of swinging to a wing too early.

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

  A short outline for the chapter: six rules for learning positional play.

In the course

• What does your opponent want?
• Answer in the centre
• Overprotecting important points
• Johner – Nimzowitsch, Dresden 1926
• Schlechter – Nimzowitsch, Carlsbad 1907