Some Famous Sayings of Aaron Nimzowitsch

About the Centre

• The center of the board consist of squares, not pawns.    
• Having the command of the centre is a question of restraint; the number of pawns is not decisive.
• The leitmotif of a true strategy should be to overprotect the centre, instead of the all too frequent habit of
  swerving to the flanks.
• The expectations for the central player are better than those for the diversionist.
• You should protect your weak points and overprotect the strong ones in the centre.
• An immovable center tends to become a weakness.

About Blockading

• It is an enigmatic fact that the blockade square tends to become a strong point for yourself and a weak
  one for your opponent.    
• When fighting against a pawn centre your motto should be "First restrain, then block, and finally destroy".
• When all is said and done, positional struggle is nothing but a fight between the mobility of the pawn mass
  and a restraining tendency on the opposite side.
• An absolutely secure blockade may very well be worth a pawn sacrifice. Previous theory only recognized
  the connection between a sacrifice and an attack.

About Pawns

• Beside prophylaxis the simultaneous mobility of the pawn mass is a main postulate in my positional credo.  
• A pawn has a natural expansive lust.
• To me the passed pawn , as well as many other actors, has a soul, and like Man he is the bearer of wishes
  and fears of which he is unaware.
• A passed pawn is a criminal that should be kept under lock and key.
• Once upon a time, before 1913, it was firmly believed that a pawn chain has to remain intact if you are to
  benefit from it. I must give myself credit for having refuted this prejudiced opinion.
• An immobile complex tends to become a weakness.

About Type Positions

• Try to get rid of the slavery under opening variations. Instead, learn a few type positions and study them
  thoroughly. Capablanca is a master of type positions.
• In my opinion the isolated d-pawn constitutes a crucial issue in positional play.
• It is no disadvantage to a man to be a limper as long as he remains seated. Similarly, doubled pawns are
  healthy as long as they remain in their position, crouching like a frog.

                                       Raoul José Capablanca, World Champion 1921-27

About Positional Play

• Positional moves more often than not are neither threats nor defense moves. 

• There is a widespread belief that you can accumulate small advantages that may be converted into a win.
  This belief is strongly overestimated. But there is something called "to transform advantages", meaning that
  you refrain from one thing to get another.

• Learn to distinguish between true and false freeing moves. (Blackburne-Nimzowitsch, Petrograd 1914)

• There is no such thing as an absolute freeing move.

• Dynamics triumphs over matter.

• In a sound position there are at least two alternatives that are "the only move".

• There is a difference between sleeping after the work has been well done and sleeping during the work itself. (p.54)

About Over-Zealous Activism etc.

• A threat is stronger than its execution.
• The amateur always assumes that every move has to achieve something immediately.
• Sometimes it is better to look for a waiting move.
• One of these modest little moves that may be more embarrassing to your opponent than the biggest threat.
  (Nimzowitsch-Tarrasch, Breslau 1925).
• A beginner is happy if he manages to checkmate his opponent. For the master it is sufficient to discover
  the shadow of a weakness of the pawn structure somewhere on the remote outskirts of the left hand side
  of the board.
• A move that lies near at hand is far from alwys the best one.
• Long live the slowness!

A historical metaphor:

• The center of the chess board is like the Balkans - acts of war may burst out at any moment.
  
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