Amazing Game: Aron Nimzowitsch's "Immortal Zugzwang Game" - Brilliancy! 1923 vs Sämich

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Saemich vs Nimzovich 1923

Friedrich Saemisch vs Aron Nimzowitsch
"The Immortal Zugzwang Game" (chessgames.com game of the day Jan-31-09)
Copenhagen 1923 · Queen's Indian Defense: Classical. Traditional Variation Nimowitsch Line (E18)

Who is Nimzovich ?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aron_Nimzowitsch

Aron Nimzowitsch (Latvian: Ārons Nimcovičs, Russian: Аро́н Иса́евич Нимцо́вич, Aron Isayevich Nimtsovich; born Aron Niemzowitsch;[1] 7 November 1886 – 16 March 1935) was a Danish leading chess grandmaster[2] and influential chess writer. He was the foremost figure amongst the hypermoderns.

Chess career
The height of Nimzowitsch's career was the late 1920s and early 1930s. Chessmetrics places him as the third best player in the world from 1927 to 1931, behind Alexander Alekhine and José Capablanca.[8] His most notable successes were first-place finishes at Copenhagen 1923, Marienbad 1925, Dresden 1926, Hanover 1926, the Carlsbad 1929 chess tournament, and second place behind Alekhine at the San Remo 1930 chess tournament. Nimzowitsch never developed a knack for match play, though; his best match success was a draw with Alekhine, but the match consisted of only two games and took place in 1914, thirteen years before Alekhine became world champion.

Nimzowitsch never beat Capablanca, but fared better against Alekhine. He even beat Alekhine with the black pieces, in their short 1914 match at St. Petersburg. One of Nimzowitsch's most famous games is his celebrated immortal zugzwang game against Sämisch at Copenhagen 1923. Another game on this theme is his win over Paul Johner at Dresden 1926. When in form, Nimzowitsch was very dangerous with the black pieces, scoring many fine wins over top players.

Legacy
This section uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.
Nimzowitsch is considered one of the most important players and writers in chess history. His works influenced numerous other players, including Savielly Tartakower, Milan Vidmar, Richard Réti, Akiba Rubinstein, Bent Larsen and Tigran Petrosian, and his influence is still felt today.

He wrote three books on chess strategy: Mein System (My System), 1925, Die Praxis meines Systems (The Practice of My System), 1929, commonly known as Chess Praxis, and Die Blockade (The Blockade), 1925, though much in the latter book is generally held to be a rehash of material already presented in Mein System. Mein System is considered to be one of the most influential chess books of all time.[9] It sets out Nimzowitsch's most important ideas, while his second most influential work, Chess Praxis, elaborates upon these ideas, adds a few new ones, and has immense value as a stimulating collection of Nimzowitsch's own games accompanied by his idiosyncratic, hyperbolic commentary which is often as entertaining as instructive.

Nimzowitsch's chess theories, when first propounded, flew in the face of widely held orthodoxies enunciated by the dominant theorist of the era, Siegbert Tarrasch, and his disciples. Tarrasch's rigid generalizations drew on the earlier work of Wilhelm Steinitz, and were upheld by Tarrasch's sharp tongue when dismissing the opinions of doubters. While the greatest players of the time, among them Alekhine, Emanuel Lasker and Capablanca, clearly did not allow their play to be hobbled by blind adherence to general concepts that the center had to be controlled by pawns, that development had to happen in support of this control, that rooks always belong on open files, that wing openings were unsound—core ideas of Tarrasch's chess philosophy as popularly understood—beginners were taught to think of these generalizations as unalterable principles.

Nimzowitsch supplemented many of the earlier simplistic assumptions about chess strategy by enunciating in his turn a further number of general concepts of defensive play aimed at achieving one's own goals by preventing realization of the opponent's plans. Notable in his "system" were concepts such as overprotection of pieces and pawns under attack, control of the center by pieces instead of pawns, blockading of opposing pieces (notably the passed pawns) and prophylaxis. He was also a leading exponent of the fianchetto development of bishops. Perhaps most importantly, he formulated the terminology still in use for various complex chess strategies. Others had used these ideas in practice, but he was the first to present them systematically as a lexicon of themes accompanied by extensive taxonomical observations.

Grandmaster (GM) Raymond Keene writes that Nimzowitsch "was one of the world's leading grandmasters for a period extending over a quarter of a century, and for some of that time he was the obvious challenger for the world championship. ... [He was also] a great and profound chess thinker second only to Steinitz, and his works – Die Blockade, My System and Chess Praxis – established his reputation as one of the father figures of modern chess ....