Surrender of the centre: pawns gone, middle not lost

In short

Imagine you exchange your pawn in the middle for an enemy pawn. After that your opponent still has a pawn there and you have none. In Nimzowitsch’s day people then often said: you have given up the centre.

Nimzowitsch called this a prejudice, because for him the centre consists of squares. A pawn does hold the middle securely, but it also blocks lines. After the exchange a file and a diagonal often become free. Along them your rooks and bishops act against the middle.

After the surrender the opponent is often left with a free, mobile pawn in the middle. Nimzowitsch compares it to a dangerous escaped prisoner whom you must not let out of your sight. You can remove it with a pawn thrust of your own. Or you restrain it until it can hardly move any more.

Often both come one after the other: first you restrain the pawn until it falls behind, then you strike. When restraining, you control the square in front of it, for example with a rook on the same file. Nimzowitsch sums up the path in three steps: restrain, blockade, destroy.

But Nimzowitsch does not always recommend the surrender. As a rule he advises holding your own centre if you can do so without other disadvantages. If you give up the middle early, you can easily end up in a bad position. With toughness, though, you then have good prospects.

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

No disaster if the squares are controlled

In “Chess Praxis” Nimzowitsch writes: giving up the pawn centre need not be a catastrophe. All that matters is whether you control the central squares enough. Under strong control the opponent’s free centre loses its mobility and itself becomes a target.

To play through

In Lee – Nimzowitsch, Black exchanges the pawn on e5 with 7… exd4. With 8… d5 Black immediately attacks the white pawn on e4, and soon this pawn has disappeared. In Nimzowitsch – Löwenfisch, White gives up the pawns in the middle by exchanging. A knight on e5 holds up the black pawns all the same.

Lesson 39 shows how a knight uses a free central square. In Lesson 32 you slow down and blockade a pawn majority in the middle.

Today’s view

Nimzowitsch made a prediction about the French Defence. He said that a certain exchange there would soon no longer be seen as giving up the centre. Today an exchange in the middle is a normal plan in many openings. Whether it is good depends on whether you can then put enough pressure on the central squares.

Where to find it in Nimzowitsch

• My System: I. Teil, 1.6a Die Preisgabe original text not yet published

  What to do after the surrender: remove or restrain the opponent’s free centre pawn, with the game Lee – Nimzowitsch.

• My System: I. Teil, 1.6 Das Zentrum und dessen Demobilisierungswut. Übungsbeispiele: wann und wie ist das Vorgehen des gegnerischen Zentrums auszuhalten. Über Behauptung und Aufgabe des Zentrums original text not yet published

  On holding and giving up the centre, with the advice to hold your own centre if possible.

• My System: II. Teil, 1.7 Das Aufgeben des Zentrums original text not yet published

  Nimzowitsch looks back on his new view that pieces and lines can replace the pawns in the centre, with his essay on it.

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

  Example games for the chapter, including one failed and one successful early surrender of the middle.

• Essays: Die „Aufgabe des Zentrums“ - ein Vorurteil original text not yet published

  Essay: an exchange in the middle is not yet giving up the centre, because the centre consists of squares.

• Chess Praxis: 1.6 Das Aufgeben des Bauernzentrums original text not yet published

  Giving up the pawn centre is no catastrophe if the central squares are controlled enough.

In the course

• The majority in the centre
• The leap into the centre
• Lee – Nimzowitsch, Ostend 1907
• Nimzowitsch – Löwenfisch, Carlsbad 1911