Space advantage: more room for your pieces

In short

If your pawns in the centre are already far forward, your pieces behind them have plenty of room. Your opponent’s pieces, on the other hand, find only a few good squares. Then you have a space advantage. The other side is cramped.

In his German textbooks, Nimzowitsch uses “Terrainvorteil” rather than today’s usual term “Raumvorteil”. Both mean a space advantage. He describes its effect on the opponent as cramping or constriction.

What is space for? Behind your own pawns your pieces switch quickly from one wing to the other. The cramped defender needs longer for the same route. If you attack two weaknesses in turn, at some point they can no longer keep up; more on this in the article “Manoeuvring against a weakness”.

Siegbert Tarrasch condemned every cramped defence. Nimzowitsch disagreed: for him what counts is not free space alone, but above all the position of the pawns in the centre. In his view, even a cramped position can be defended.

Start with lesson 36: there you use your space to switch between two wings. In Sämisch – Nimzowitsch, Black completely constricts the white pieces. In Jacobsen – Nimzowitsch, Nimzowitsch himself is cramped for a long time and slowly gains space.

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

Constricting all the way to zugzwang

Cramping only works as long as it holds. Nimzowitsch shows this with a white pawn on e5: it takes the square f6 away from the black knight. If the knight is allowed to reach f6 even once, much of the cramping fizzles out. For consistent cramping Nimzowitsch even accepts the loss of a pawn.

In Sämisch – Nimzowitsch, Black carries the constriction through to the end. White soon has neither open files nor good squares. In the end every white move does harm: that is zugzwang. Nimzowitsch therefore compared the game with the famous “Immortal Game”.

When you are cramped

A cramped position is not lost. If it is solid, Nimzowitsch says, you should as a rule free it only slowly. He writes this about his own position in the game against Rabinowitsch.

A mobile defence, as described in the article “Elasticity”, also helps. The pawns move forward or draw together through an exchange, and the pieces adapt. According to Nimzowitsch, a rigid pawn wall seldom withstands the pressure.

Today’s view

Today the space advantage is one of the most important features by which a position is judged. Whoever is cramped often looks to exchange pieces, because few pieces need little room.

But space alone does not win a game. Pawns that have advanced far can themselves become targets, for example for a pawn lever. So check whether your opponent can attack your pawn spearhead.

Where to find it in Nimzowitsch

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

  Why even a small space advantage brings the pieces from one wing to the other faster.

• Chess Praxis: 5. Das Lavieren gegen feindliche Schwächen bei gegebenem eigenen Terrainvorteil original text not yet published

  Manoeuvring against two weaknesses when your own side has more space; the space advantage is the most important principle here.

• My System: Nachtrag, 1. Die allgemeine Lage der Dinge vor 1911 original text not yet published

  Nimzowitsch’s criticism of Tarrasch’s catchwords such as free play and cramped defence, with the cramping by a pawn on e5.

• The Blockade: Partie 9 original text not yet published

  Sämisch – Nimzowitsch: White is completely constricted and ends up in zugzwang.

• My System: I. Teil, Partie-Beispiele zu den ersten drei Kapiteln (original text)

  Example games, including Rabinowitsch – Nimzowitsch with a solid but cramped black position.

• Essays: Das Problem der Verteidigung. original text not yet published

  Essay on defending cramped positions with a mobile rather than a rigid pawn front.

In the course

• Manoeuvring along an axis
• Jacobsen – Nimzowitsch, Copenhagen 1923
• Rabinowitsch – Nimzowitsch, Baden-Baden 1925
• Sämisch – Nimzowitsch, Copenhagen 1923