The Art of Taking Advantage of Inactive Pieces

We all love beautiful moves that shatter our opponent's king, or ones that simply win material. However, in some ways, this blog is about an even more beautiful art: Squeezing your opponent to such an extent that their pieces are bound together and are sitting on a pile of super glue! It can often feel like being up multiple pieces. Positionally, it indeed is. This blog will go over possibly my favorite chess game ever and explore this theme to the highest level!

Saemisch vs Nimzowitsch

This game is one of the most beautiful games ever played. It is between Nimzowitsch (actually Nimzovich, which was changed after he moved to Denmark. Credits to tpr.), the legendary player and author, against Saemisch, who gave Capablanca one of his most crushing defeats and has a popular variation in the King's Indian named after him. This game shows Nimzowitsch tying up Saemisch's pieces together. By move 25, the last move of the game, Saemisch is already in a middle game zugzwang!

The move 10...a6 begins the suffocation. While Saemisch wanders around with aimless
little moves like 14. h3 and 15. Kh2, Nimzowitsch makes either restrictive moves or improves his own position.

15... Nh5 and 16... f5 are both very important moves. 16... f5, in particular, might be a hard move to fully figure out. You have to wary of the e4 pawn break and this move prevents that beautifully. It is also hard to blame Saemisch for 17. Qd1. Though, this move represents the game fully. Saemisch going backwards and tying himself up gave Nimzowitsch all he needed to turn this game into a masterpiece.

17... b4 is a great way to refute Qd1, forcing the knight to be nearly worthless. 18... Bb5 is also a great move, similar to 16... f5, but also puts a minor piece in a better position. Even 19... Bd6, which in my opinion is the most understated move of the whole game and doesn't really matter until the brilliant 25th move, is highly restrictive of the g-pawn, disallowing an opening of the file, while also developing a piece.

The move 20... fxe4 is somehow only the second most creative idea of the game. It is a move of the highest class. Black does indeed lose a point in material, but gains domination of the f file, a great rook, forces the king to stay on the poor h2 square, and keeps the HORRIBLE b1 knight to defend the dark squared bishop.

22. Qg5 is a very strong attempt, giving the king room to breath. However, White's position is so tied up, it hardly matters. Black, meanwhile, begins attacking the last active piece that White has: The queen.

The move 24... Bd3 threatens to trap the queen. Even though Saemisch can defend using his c-rook, it hardly matters. The move 25... h6 is one of the most brutal moves in chess history, even if it doesn't appear to be so. White's pieces quite literally are FORCED to give up material! It is one of the greatest and earliest examples of zugzwang in a chess game. This game is both instructive and beautiful. If chess were art, this would be up there with the Picasso's and Van Gogh's

Outro

Anyways, I am happy to share this game with you, the reader. I hope you learned about the art of restriction. If you have any suggestions for games or positional characteristics, let me know! I hope this game brightened your day!