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Summary: Book earns author title "Father of Modern Chess"
Review: This was one of the most important middlegame books ever written and is worth having if only for historical interest. However, the book is still useful today, especially for its detailed treatment of pawn structure and blockading.
Nimzovich's writing is vivid, humorous, and easy to understand. One niggle: occasionally he describes positions in words when a diagram would be easier to understand.
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Summary: A must read book for every player
Review: This is probably one of the best books I ever read. Don't miss its follow up "Chess praxis" where ideas presented here are shown in praxtice
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Summary: One of The Three Best Chess Books in The World
Review: I have a chess library that contains several hundred dollars worth of books. And looking at them there are three that I have learned more from than all the rest: MY SYSTEM by Aron Nimzowitsch, IDEAS BEHIND THE CHESS OPENINGS by Reuben Fine, and COLLE SYSTEM by George Koltanowski.
To do justice to this book, and to understand what Nimzowitsch is saying in it, will require a commitment of both time and effort from the reader. Don't pick this book up and expect to polish it off in a weekend 'cause this book is to The Chess World what Chemistry 101 is to Science. An aspiring chess player won't get anywhere without Nimzowitsch's concepts of: overprotection, centralization, open lines, surrender of the center, pawn structure, attacking strategies, defense strategies. Many International Grandmasters admit to cutting their teeth on this book. Nimzowitsch's concepts on middlegame play are the bedrock upon which solid, effective chess skills are made. He instructs the reader on sound opening play and then moves into the middlegame and endgame phases in greater depth than does Fine (see above book). His approach to chess could be called scientific: his analysis of a position by its strong and weak points allows the reader to understand what to strive for and what to plan for when moving the pieces from one square to another. Moves are made for a reason; Nimzowitsch teaches those reasons. This book won't make you a World Champion, but you won't become one without it. This is a must-have book
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Summary: A clear, simple way to improve your chess
Review: This is a classic of chess literature, and still one of the finest chess books around. Nimzovich's innovative approach to the game gets you to think in terms you may not have thought of before. Did you ever wonder why some players always beat you, no matter how hard you try? This book breaks down the mysteries of the game, and provides the reader with important general principles, which will improve your game. He builds from one idea to the next, always showing illustrative games as part of his analysis.
Chess players who want to improve must add this book to their libraries. You'll win more games knowing the principles in this book. You see your opponent's plan, and be able to stop it. Best of all, your appreciation of the game of chess will improve.
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Summary: A Classic
Review: This book, together with Chess Praxis, are excellent for the 1500-1600 rated player who wants to become Class A or Expert in short order. An insight on every page. (Silman is a hack. It's like comparing a Mercedes to a Yugo.)
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Summary: Yes, Watson did the right thing for this classic work.
Review: In 1985 I bought this book (1975 ed., pub. by McKay.) I tried to read it and didn't understand much. Fifteen years later, I tried again and it was still. Now I need to read it before going to the next level with Watson's book.
Nimzovich's My System is a difficult book to write (and confusing at times to read.) He wrote it for both advanced players and beginners. For I'm a beginner, I only can reflect from this standpoint. There are a lot of confusions to me. There are 3 parts in My System: 1) The Elements, 2) Positional Play and 3) Illustrated games (I bought this book because his games inside were so impressive).
I just went quickly over the dated explanations (didn't go over the detail examples) because I want to start Watson soon.
So far with part 1 alone I observed these confusions.
---(A.N.)
Chapter 1 section 2: A Pawn move must not in itself be regarded as a developing move, but merely as an aid to development. An important postulate for the beginner is the following:-If it were possible to develop the pieces without the aid of Pawn moves, the Pawn-less advance would be the correct one; for, as suggested, the Pawn is not a fighting unit in the sense that his crossing of the frontier is to be feared by the enemy, since obviously the attacking force of the Pawns is small compared with that of the pieces. However, the Pawn-less advance is in reality impossible of execution; since the enemy Pawn-center, thanks to its inherent aggressiveness, would drive back the pieces which we had developed. For this reason we should, in order to safeguard the development of our pieces, first build up a Pawn-center.
---(H.H.)
a) In the old time, people played "brilliantly" mainly with pieces; they delivered "lightning" checkmates. With the advance defense the attack by pieces alone is easily and forcefully repulsed.
b) Without Pawn-moves, no Queen, Bishops or Rooks can be developed.
c) Here Nimzovich conceded that the enemy Pawns would repulse our Knights therefore we have to push the Pawns to challenge their Pawns for our piece development. So can the Pawns get "partial credit" for development points?
d) We develop pieces in order to attack opponent's camp. Against advance defense, any attack, no matter how small, even by a Pawn would snowball the attack. So a Pawn is worth the development goal.
e) If Pawn-move is non-developing move, then is there any game that the winner never develops any piece? In Chernev's "Wonders and Curiosities of Chess", Marshall (or Tarrasch? or Rubinstein?) made only a dozen or so of Pawn moves and won the game!
---(A.N.)
In chapter 7 (The pin) he wrote: A pinned piece's defensive power is only imaginary. He only makes a gesture as if he would defense: in reality he is crippled and immobile. Hence we may confidently place our pieces en prise to a pinned piece, for he dare not lay hands on it.
---(H.H.)
Really? The pinned piece still controls the squares within its attacking range. Therefore it can hold back the enemy King who tries to approach and help increasing the pressure on the defender (for example: in the endgame). A pinned Rook (or Bishop) can still pin an enemy Knight (or Pawn) from joining the battle, is it doing defensive task? How about the attacking power of a pinned piece? A pinned black Bishop at b7 still can support an attack of another piece at white Castle at g2-square.
A special case of pin and counter-pin is from the game of xxx-xxx in (maybe) Burgess's Mammoth's Greatest Chess Games. (Please wait. I try to recall the exact location.)
---(A.N.)
Chapter 8 section 1 (Discovered Check): The degree of relationship between the pin and the discovered check is more closely defined. Where should the piece which discovers the check move to?
---(H.H.)
Huh? The pinned piece can't move. The piece discovering the check can move freely to where it increases his side's attacking strength. The side X-rays the enemy King is in control of that sector of the board.
---(A.N.)
Chapter 8 section 2: The see-saw. The long-range masking piece can move to any square in his line of motion without spending a tempo, that is to say, wholly gratis.
---(H.H.)
I think now we can write: The Windmill check. The long-range piece (Rook or Bishop; why not the Queen? Guess) can give check and uncover check while killing all pieces along its attacking range and still maintain the right of move.
Nimzovich was so attached to the famous game between Torre-Lasker (Moscow, 1925) (Diagram 106) and Diagram 104, that he forgot in Diagram 103 (right-hand side) there is a mate in 4.
---(A.N.)
Chapter 8 section 3: Double check. Is brought about by the masking piece also giving check. The effectiveness of a double check lies in the fact that of the three possible parries to a check, two are nugatory, namely the capture of the piece giving check and the interposition of a piece. Flight is the one and only resource.
---(H.H.)
It's simpler like: The double check forces the enemy King to move because either simultaneously capturing both checking pieces or simultaneously blocking the checks on two directions is impossible. If one of the checks is from the Knight, this is self-evident.
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These are the confusions I have in part 1, I will continue with part 2.
This book is a five star book because many GMs and players recommend it. I need to read more and more to clear all these confusions.
It is the second scientific work in chess. The first is Steinitz' book. Lasker's and Capablanca's books are not comparable. I haven't read Tarrasch yet.
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Summary: Un clásico
Review: Este libro en definitiva es un clásico de la literatura ajedrecística. Lo recomiendo para jugadores con buena práctica del juego, pero poco conocimiento del juego posicional.
Evidentemente, algunas de las apreciaciones respecto al juego posicional son diferentes hoy día, pero el texto presenta una base magnífica para materiales más amplios como el texto de Pachman.
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Summary: Awesome Chess Book...
Review: I own about 40 chess books, but this is the first I have ever felt the need to review. This is the definitive chess book as the ideas Nimzovich brought to the game were unheard of before his mastery. Ideas like center control and prophylaxis were scoffed at, no one understood the power of a rook on the 7th or the pawn chain until his explanations. Sadly, the only flaw in this version is that the diagrams are small and grainy. (This does not detract form the expertly written text) Nimzovich was the "Stormy Petrel" for a reason. He was pretty high on himself, but generally had good reason to be. My Elo went up about 50 points during the duration of the read and another 30 on re-read. I plan on taking a week to go over it again as it has been a few years and hopefully i have improved enough to further learn from the master.
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Summary: The One Chess Book
Review: My System really is the one chess book to read for almost anyone who knows how to move the pieces and a bit more. The chapters about the passed pawn, the isolated pawn, the open files,7th and 8th ranks are absolute classics. My own playing strength was helped by this book from around 1400 to 1600. I can't think of a reason why any chess reader should not read this book.
The edition is nice, type is ok , not great. At least they took care of the algebraic notation fix with little or no errors. Also there is a correction or two of things that the world of chess has learned since the book was written. Even Nimzo's analysis turned out to be wrong sometime. What do you know.
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Summary: A MUST own
Review: I am currently a B class player. In my last 8 months of tournament play, my rating jumped 510 points (from 1241 to 1751) I managed to accumulate about five 1st place finishes. This book was (and still is) the only book I have completed studying . Every good thing you have heard about this book is true. Nimzowitsch himself said, "A thorough knowledge of the elements takes us more than half the road to mastership." These elements are presented in this book. A MUST own for any low rated player seeking to improve.
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