The Chess Revolution 1911-1914
"Es hätte
keinen Zweck, all den mir zuteil gewordenen Hohn und Spott registrieren oder
blob
andeuten zu wollen; es genügt, wenn ich sage: niemand ist, solange die
Schachgeschichte
besteht, in dieser Weise mibhandelt
worden" (P. 250)
These are bittter words, even more so
if we know that they were uttered as late as 1927 (5. Lieferung),
at a point of time when Nimzowitsch had risen to the top of the
players of the world, and we might have
expected that he should be able to assume a somewhat more lenient
attitude towards his adversaries.
The number one enemy was Tarrasch, but Nimzowitsch also accuses Alapin of
having delivered totally
mistaken criticism.
It is hard to say to what extent the
harsh relationships between A.N. and several of his colleagues were
caused by clashes due to irreconcilable personalities, and to differences
of opinion dealing with chess
strategy, respectively.
No doubt A.N. was a difficult person in social life, but on the other hand, as
Björn Nielsen writes in his
book "Nimzowitsch - Denmark's Chess Teacher", he was immediately ready
to forgive someone who
showed he was sorry for some recent conflict. He detested smoking, a fact which
led to the welknown
story about a game against Vidmar, during which Vidmar piled up a number of
cigars on the table, which
brought Nimzowitsch close to the point of a nervous break-down, ending in
the famous saying
"He threatens to smoke, and a threat is stronger than its execution".
And this despite of the fact that Vidmar
is said to have been one of A.N.' relatively few friends.
In the postscript Nimzowitsch comments
on the debate with Dr. Tarrasch about the centre, and he
reproduces an article that he wrote as early as 1913 in "Wiener
Schachzeitung", with the title
"Does Dr. Tarrasch's 'The Modern Game of Chess' match up to a truly modern
opinion?".
He says he has admired Dr. Tarrasch for his straightforwardness, but that
Tarrasch too easily tends to
indulge in superficial judgements. A typical "apple of discord"
is the surrender of the centre.
Then the author introduces "The
Revolutionary Theses", which are related to "Hypermodernism".
This designation was launched by Tartakower in his book Die
hypermoderne Schachpartie (1924), being
a witty rejoinder to Tarrasch's Die moderne Schachpartie (1912).
Nimzowitsch advocates in his
"theses" the elastic centre, the harmlessness of the pawn roller, and
the weakness
of a complex of squares of a certain colour, and he demonstrates his ideas
in a number of games.
2011-11-25