Fix My Chess
A Fix My Chess master
Nimzowitsch
The Prophylactic Mind
“First restrain, then blockade, and only then destroy. Patience is a weapon.”
What it cures in your game
If your dominant leak is hanging pieces, Nimzowitsch is your antidote. The way he plays — the same you see in these games — is exactly what you need to internalize. In Fix My Chess you choose him as your master and train under his style, game by game, until that leak closes.
His life in chapters
- 1886–1913
Riga — the student who disagreed
I was born in Riga in 1886 and learned the game from my father. The textbooks of the day recited Tarrasch’s rules as if they were laws of nature — and I kept finding positions where the rules were simply wrong. Everyone occupies the centre, they said. I asked: why not control it from a distance?
- 1914–1922
War and wandering
The war scattered my world; I left Riga and, after years of wandering, settled in Copenhagen. Denmark gave me the calm to think — and I had a great deal to think about. The ideas the old school dismissed were becoming a system in my hands: prophylaxis, blockade, overprotection. The chess world did not know it yet, but a revolution was being written.
- 1923–1928
«My System»
I wrote «My System», and chess had a new grammar. They called us hypermoderns, as if we were a fashion; we were a correction. Restrain, blockade, destroy — the centre is a matter of control, not occupation. Half the world mocked me. The other half quietly rebuilt their chess on my pages.
- 1929–1935
Carlsbad 1929 — the proof
A system must win games, or it is philosophy. At Carlsbad in 1929 I took first prize against the strongest field of the age — the theory proven over the board, where it counts. Those were my greatest years. I died in Copenhagen in 1935; the openings that carry my name are still asking my questions.
Is this your master?
Diagnose your latest games and find out which master cures your dominant leak. Free, in a minute, no account.