Small but secure centre: little space, a firm hold

In short

Look at the pawns in the centre. Sometimes many pawns stand far forward there and take space away from the opponent. Sometimes there are only two pawns, say on d6 and e6, hardly advanced. Even a small centre like this can be very secure.

Secure means that the opponent cannot easily break these pawns open. According to Nimzowitsch, their number does not matter, nor how far forward they stand. The centre only has to be healthy and possible to defend.

From this Nimzowitsch draws a rule. If your centre is secure, you may attack on a wing, even if the target is not yet entirely clear. But if your centre becomes weak, the same attack loses its support. Then you should first make your position firm.

With a small centre you are often cramped. Nimzowitsch names two skills you then need: prevention and clever regrouping of the pieces in your own camp. He counts the small centre as part of the hypermodern school. The players of the older school, he thinks, would have suffocated in it, because they needed a lot of space.

Lesson 25 shows the other side: against a strong centre, an attack on a wing alone achieves little. Lesson 21 practises prevention. In Yates – Nimzowitsch, Black attacks on the queenside with a secure centre. In Jacobsen – Nimzowitsch, he is cramped for a long time and patiently regroups his pieces.

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

Two kinds of wing attack

Nimzowitsch distinguishes two cases. In the first, the attack takes place far from the centre and pursues a goal of its own. The secure centre backs it up.

In the second case, the attack takes place close to the centre. Its main aim is to free your own centre, which is somewhat hemmed in. Nimzowitsch calls such positions Paulsen positions; in his day they often occurred in Sämisch’s games.

What holds today

Today, too, people agree that a cramped but healthy set-up can be defended well. But always check the actual position to see whether a wing attack is worthwhile. First ask yourself whether your centre really holds.

Where to find it in Nimzowitsch

• Chess Praxis: 6.4 Das kleine aber feste Zentrum original text not yet published

  The small but secure centre as a support for wing attacks, with prophylaxis and manoeuvres in your own camp as the most important skills.

• Chess Praxis: 6.3 Zentrum und Flügelspiel original text not yet published

  Centre and wing play: wing attacks only with a secure centre of your own, and even a restricted centre counts as secure.

• Chess Praxis: 6. Streifzüge durch hypermodernes Alt- und Neuland original text not yet published

  Introduction to the section, with the question of what Nimzowitsch does and does not mean by a secure central position.

• Chess Praxis: Partie 85 (original text)

  Yates – Nimzowitsch: a wing attack with a secure centre that loses its support after a mistake in the centre.

• Chess Praxis: Partie 90 (original text)

  Jacobsen – Nimzowitsch: Black feels at ease in his cramped position and regroups his pieces in his own camp.

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

  Games on positional play, including the remark that a flank attack alone does not defeat a strongly centralised game.

In the course

• What does your opponent want?
• Answer in the centre
• Jacobsen – Nimzowitsch, Copenhagen 1923
• Yates – Nimzowitsch, Carlsbad 1923