Tuesday 7 October 2008

Dreaming of Nimzowitsch

I've finished my first read of Aron Nimzowitsch's "My System" and am about to re-read it, just to reinforce what I've learned. Clearly what I have learned is seeping into my sub-conscious, as I have begun to have dreams about chess games where I have applied some of the concepts in the book.
In one game I beat a rival from my junior days, Justin Marshall, by exploiting a hole he left on e3. Even in a dream this is somewhat of an achievement as Justin won a couple of ACT Junior Championships (beating me in to second in 1983), as well as holding a 3-0 score over many times NSW Champion Greg Canfell. (In Greg's defence these games were played early on in his career).
I'd like to show the game I dreamed, but I am unable to reconstruct it. It went for around 20 moves, but as the White king was on h2 at one point, and I was able to put it in check by moving my own king from h6 to g6, uncovering the rook on h8, I'm not sure it would make much sense. Instead I'll show a game from "My System", where Nimzowitsch happily surrenders the 2 bishops in return for control of the d file, and threats against Black's weak pawns.

Nimzowitsch - Pritzel
Copenhagen 1922

1.d4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 Nf6 5.Be2 0-0 6.Qd2 e5 7.dxe5 dxe5 8.0-0-0 Qxd2+ 9.Rxd2 c6 [ 9...Nc6 10.h3 Nd4!? ( 10...Be6 11.Nf3 h6 12.Rhd1 a6) 11.Nf3! ( 11.Bxd4 exd4 12.Rxd4 Ng4!) 11...Nxe2+± ( 11...Nxf3±) ] 10.a4 Ng4 11.Bxg4 Bxg4 12.Nge2 Nd7 13.Rhd1 Nb6 14.b3 Bf6 15.f3 Be6 16.a5 Nc8 17.Na4 b6 18.Rd3 [ 18.axb6 axb6 19.Bxb6 ( 19.Nxb6 Nxb6 20.Bxb6 Bg5) 19...Bg5] 18...bxa5 [ 18...Rb8] 19.Rc3 Ne7 20.Rc5 Rfb8 21.Nec3 a6 22.Rxa5 Kg7 23.Nb6 Ra7 24.Nca4 Rab7 25.Rxa6 Nc8 26.Nxc8 Rxc8 27.Nc5 Rbc7 28.Rd6 Rd8 29.Nxe6+ 1-0

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Re-reading chess books can be instructive after a long period of time, but I don't think re-reading it so soon will really enhance what you've learned from reading it the first time Shaun. But I still wish you the best of luck against Greg Canfell.

Alex