Aron Nimzowitsch Quotes

• The passed Pawn is a criminal, who should be kept under lock and key. Mild measures, such as police surveillance, are not sufficient

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Keys, Police, Criminals

  78 Copy quote

• First restrain, next blockade, lastly destroy.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Next, Firsts, Chess

  36 Copy quote

• The threat is stronger than the execution.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Stronger, Execution, Threat

  Aron Nimzowitsch (2014). “Aron Nimzowitsch 1928-1935: Annotated Games & Essays”, p.272, New In Chess

  45 Copy quote

• The beauty of a move lies not in its appearance but in the thought behind it.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Inspirational, Beauty, Sports

  "Nimzovich the Hypermodern". Book by Fred Reinfeld, 1948.

  40 Copy quote

• Do not always be thinking of attack! Moves that safeguard your position are often far more prudent.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Moving, Thinking, Prudent

  30 Copy quote

• How can I lose to such an idiot?

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Funny, Witty, Humorous

  34 Copy quote

• Many men, many styles; what is chess style but the intangible expression of the will to win.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Winning, Men, Expression

  34 Copy quote

• A thorough knowledge of the elements takes us more than half the road to mastership

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Thorough Knowledge, Elements, Half

  20 Copy quote

• Giving up the center must not here be regarded as illogical. Was happiness no happiness because it endured for just a short time? One cannot always be happy.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Giving Up, Always Be Happy, Illogical

  20 Copy quote

• In the middlegame, the king is merely an extra, but in the endgame, he is one of the star actors.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Kings, Stars, Actors

  31 Copy quote

• The isolated Pawn casts gloom over the entire chessboard

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Chess, Pawns, Casts

  30 Copy quote

• It is a well known phenomenon that the same amateur who can conduct the middle game quite creditably, is usually perfectly helpless in the end game. One of the principal requisites of good chess is the ability to treat both the middle and end game equally well.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Games, Chess, Well Known

  41 Copy quote

• No pawn exchanges, no file-opening, no attack.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Chess, Pawns, Opening

  20 Copy quote

• Strategically important points should be overprotected. If the pieces are so engaged, they get their regard in the fact that they will then find themselves well posted in every respect.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Important, Pieces, Chess

  30 Copy quote

• The defensive power of a pinned piece is only imaginary

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Chess Game, Chess Pieces, Tactics

  14 Copy quote

• How vain are our fears! I thought to myself. Sometimes we fear that which our opponent (or fate) had never even considered! After this, then, is it any longer worthwhile to rack one's brain to find new ghosts to fear? No, indeed: All hail optimism! - upon playing Hermanis Mattison after he overlooked an unusual knight manouevre.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Fate, Knights, Optimism

  28 Copy quote

• Even the laziest King flees wildly in the face of a double check!

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Kings, Chess, Faces

  25 Copy quote

• How is it to be explained that something inside me revolts against the playing of obvious moves? Perhaps we may perceive the underlying reason in the fact that I derive satisfaction from seeking to reveal the concealed meaning of a position by means of maneuvering play and therefore I do not wish to see this satisfaction curtailed by a banal, more or less fortuitous decision. Naturally, this phenomenon is played out beneath the threshold of consciousness. The waking consciousness will, of course, in each individual case, give preference to the more rapid means of deciding the game.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Moving, Mean, Games

  18 Copy quote

• Chess strategy as such today is still in its diapers, despite Tarrasch's statement 'We live today in a beautiful time of progress in all fields'. Not even the slightest attempt has been made to explore and formulate the laws of chess strategy.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Beautiful, Law, Progress

  19 Copy quote

• If in a battle, I seize a bit of debatable land with a handful of soldiers, without having done anything to prevent an enemy bombardment of the position, would it ever occur to me to speak of a conquest of the terrain in question? Obviously not. Then why should I do so in chess?

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Land, Soldier, Enemy

  21 Copy quote

• Ridicule can do much, for instance embitter the existence of young talents; but one thing is not given to it, to put a stop permanently to the incursion of new and powerful ideas.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Powerful, Ideas, Talent

  11 Copy quote

• The great mobility of the King forms one of the chief characteristics of all endgame strategy. In the middlegame the King is a mere 'super', in the endgame on the other hand - on of the 'principals'. We must therefore develop him, bring him nearer to the fighting line.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Kings, Fighting, Hands

  13 Copy quote

• The main Objective of any operation in an open file is the eventual Occupation of the seventh or eighth Rank.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Occupation, Chess, Operations

  9 Copy quote

• The knight of QB3 is under obligation, the moment the enemy gives him the chance, of undertaking an invasion of the center by Kn-Q5.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Night, Giving, Enemy

  12 Copy quote

• Ridicule can do much, for instance embitter the existence of young talents.

  Aron Nimzowitsch

  Chess, Talent, Young

  11 Copy quote

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