Aron Nimzowitsch Quotes

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

Aron Nimzowitsch

#2. The beauty of a move lies not in it's appearance but in the thought behind it.

Aron Nimzowitsch

#3. 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

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

Aron Nimzowitsch

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

Aron Nimzowitsch

#6. When I today ask myself whence I got the moral courage, for it takes moral courage to make a move (or form a plan) running counter to all tradition, I think I may say in answer, that it was only my intense preoccupation with the problem of the blockade which helped me to do so.

Aron Nimzowitsch

#7. 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

#8. The isolated Pawn casts gloom over the entire chessboard

Aron Nimzowitsch

#9. Even the laziest King flees wildly in the face of a double check!

Aron Nimzowitsch

#10. 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

#11. The night 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

#12. How can I lose to such an idiot?

Aron Nimzowitsch

#13. 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

#14. 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

#15. 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

#16. The defensive power of a pinned piece is only imaginary

Aron Nimzowitsch

#17. A thorough knowledge of the elements takes us more than half the road to mastership

Aron Nimzowitsch

#18. 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

#19. The threat is stronger than the execution.

Aron Nimzowitsch