Book Review: Nimzovich's My System FastTrack Edition, Edited by Alex Fishbein
Book Review: Nimzovich's My System FastTrack Edition, Edited by Alex Fishbein
Fishbein trims the fat on a century-old classic and retranslates it for the modern world
Thanks to Russell Enterprises for generously sending me a review copy of this book.
This is, I think, the longest book review I have written thus far. Part of the reason for this is because the original book has been around for a very long time, and opinions remain heavily divided on it, and thus so does the advice about whether it’s worth learning from today. Since this is a blog written for people like me (that is, people trying to figure out if reading something will be good for their chess), and given the subject matter, I take a pretty detailed approach here. For the sake of brevity, I think it’s important to simply give my rating before I go on — in this review I go a bit in depth about the prior editions of My System and the critiques they’ve received in order to set some of the stage for this new edition, and I want to argue that the FastTrack Edition is worth reading through since it improves on most if not all of the criticisms that are usually levied at the original today. Therefore, I’m giving this book a 4 out of 5. That being said, what follows is the full review:
When I first read My System
Any chess player who has asked for book recommendations on how to improve their game has probably at one point or another come across the suggestion to read and study the old classic My System by Aron Nimzowitsch. I certainly did, and it was my first chess book purchase, now six years ago. I had bought the 2016 New In Chess version that contained both My System and Praxis and an updated English translation from the original German. At the time, I read through the book on my Kindle app and didn’t bother playing through things on a board, but I still found it to be an interesting and slightly entertaining read. However, I concluded that I had learned more about Nimzowitsch than I had about positional chess by the time I had finished reading the book. You might recall me saying in my review of New York 1924: “I feel certain that My System’s popularity will wane, perhaps deservedly-so.”
I don’t think my experience as a player learning in the 2010s was abnormal. Nimzo was known for his eccentric explanations, and it turns out (no surprise) My System is therefore a product of his time and experiences. I give the following position and a quote from the NIC edition of the book, not to criticize their translation or the book itself, but just to talk about all the fat that came along with the meat of Nimzowitsch’s famous positional primer:
Says Nimzowitsch:
“If we were to compare the d5-knight with a newly published newspaper, the rook at d1 would correspond to the capital that stands behind the name of the enterprise. And what role does the e4-pawn play then? Well, the role of the agrarian party. You see, a newspaper has both capital and a unified party behind the scenes; such a paper we can justifiably describe as solidly funded. But should either of these be lacking, our daily paper (the outpost) would all of a sudden lose just about all its prestige and importance.” (Nimzowitsch, Aron. My System & Chess Praxis: His Landmark Classics in One Edition (Kindle Location 863). New in Chess. Kindle Edition.)
Nimzowitsch is actually talking about the d5-knight as an “outpost” (more on this later) and the importance of the semi-open d-file that allows the rook to support White’s plan of attacking d6 if Black plays c6 to kick the knight. Nimzo, imagining a pawn on d3 in order to extend his analogy and explain why the semi-open file matters, relates that “the business capital is exhausted.” He means, the rook’s power no longer exists as it does not attack d6 after c6 kicks the knight — the d3-pawn stands in the way of the rook.
To a modern reader, this comparison makes very little sense and has no theoretical relevance and can hardly contribute to any timeless truth about the game. It’s an esoteric quirk endemic to Nimzowitsch’s time, an orphaned analogy. And moments like this occur throughout.
Another critique of My System that is often given is that Nimzo’s treatment of certain ideas, such as overprotection (controlling a square so many times that any given piece may move to perform another task at a moment’s notice due to the inherent flexibility of the defense), simply don’t hold water.
Even more irrelevantly, Nimzowitsch engaged in protracted debates with people like Siegbert Tarrasch, and used My System as one springboard to conduct his attacks. Sometimes the pages dripped with sarcasm and witticisms as he stuck doggedly to his own ideas and berated Tarrasch for his. Bitterness is one thing, but pure alkalinity can put others off.
Lastly, Nimzowitsch was a tactical genius. Therefore, in many examples where he praises his “System”, and his opponents appear to magically crumble before the might of his positional ideas on the board, he misattributes to his strategic values. The truth is that in many positions in many of the exemplary games given, Nimzo’s opponents just didn’t give a very strong defense and fell to a tactical trick, rather than because he outplayed them as they reached their inevitable demise. In the age of computers where we can be told all by a single click of a button, using this book as a positional primer could even seem dangerous or detrimental to one’s growth.
This has led to My System becoming increasingly maligned into the 2020’s. Why sift through strange and irrelevant philosophical or social commentary when you could just as easily pick up a more modern book (like, say, Simple Chess, or Winning Chess Strategies, or The Amateur’s Mind) and have a much easier time reading and learning? By now, My System sometimes more resembles a meme than a serious improvement manual to the average millennial or younger player — even some Gen X-ers question it. There are, of course, exceptions; but by-and-large, My System’s perceived value has become increasing historical in nature, and not theoretical.
Enter Nimzovich’s My System FastTrack Edition, edited by GM Alex Fishbein.
GM Fishbein belongs to that generation of grandmasters who cut their teeth on My System — and in his case, the Russian translation, which is rumored to have been co-translated and approved by Nimzowitsch himself. Being less removed in time from the publishing of the book gives him a different perspective — one that is much more appreciative of Nimzowitsch’s insights, and one that may be informed by linguistic nuances that simply aren’t available to non-German or non-Russian reading/speaking audiences.
Alex has made it his mission to make My System readable and correct, and up to the scrutiny of the modern player. And in my opinion, he mostly succeeds.
Teaching an old dog new tricks
In his preface to the FastTrack Edition, Alex relates his experience growing up with the book as a young boy in the Soviet Union, then his move to the States where he discovered that many people complained that it was hard to read. Over the years, he became increasingly compelled to update My System to be readable for the modern audience. That being said, he also recognizes the complaints people have had about the book — and even agrees with them. So here we have an edition of the book given by a mediator between man and Nimzo — Alex wants to present My System as he sees it, while also showing its continued relevance to people like me. It’s no wonder, then that I was excited to read this book when I heard that it was published.
I think an important keyword in Alex’s philosophy for this new translation of My System is “textbook.” Alex’s goal is to distill and correct My System into something that is both readable and didactically useful. Alex writes in the preface:
“It is fine to have mistakes, even serious mistakes in books… but not if they are textbooks! The problem is that the student will check the position with the engine, find that the engine says something totally different, and become hopelessly confused about what knowledge to retain. In the modern era, a textbook (and this certainly is one) needs to be free from major errors that jeopardize the narrative.”
It’s GM Fishbein’s intent to edit the book insofar as is necessary, even sometimes replacing whole games with better examples (mostly if not completely sourced from Nimzowitsch’s follow-up work Chess Praxis). For Alex, Nimzowitsch’s ideas were basically correct, but his examples were sometimes incomplete and on occasion completely wrong. When possible, he updates or modifies Nimzowitsch just enough to keep things on track. Where even Alex admits that something “just cannot be salvaged”, it is unceremoniously removed. Yet, Alex is not an iconoclast. There are multiple examples of analysis in a game that may be somewhat incorrect but still extremely illustrative, so he first allows it to stand unmolested, and then afterwards re-analyzes it (in italics) to correct Nimzo or show how the losing side could put up a tougher defense. Alex also gives a short appendix at the end of the book containing more corrections. In this way, he keeps the essence of the book the same without intrusive notes littered everywhere.
Lastly (with regard to Alex’s preface), I found it poignant that he decided to keep certain move punctuations (namely, Nimzowitsch’s bombastic use of the double-exclam (!!)) because of their memorability:
“They say, ‘Plato is my friend, but the truth is dearer to me.’ I say there are still times when Plato can be dearer than the truth.”
Nimzowitsch is clearly Alex’s Plato.
With all that introduction and preface out of the way — let’s get into the book itself.
The Elements
Part 1 of My System FastTrack Edition focuses on “The Elements” — the basic strategic building blocks of the “System.” In the original, Nimzowitsch had 9 chapters. Fishbein has reduced this down to six, by combining the chapters on piece exchanges, pins and discoveries down to one since they are all focused on tactical themes — he also moves the chapter on the Pawn Chain to Part 2 on “Positional Play”. Part 1 represents the larger half of the book and is well-suited to players rated 1100 and up.
Chapter 1, “The Center and Development”, focuses on the very core principles of chess openings. While I think advice like this has been stated so many times, I always find something interesting when it’s presented in a different manner than I would have thought of it. So, despite this chapter being very focused on “the basics”, I found it very readable and interesting and even helpful for a player at my level of strength. The advice about “open games” (that is, 1.e4 e5) is still good and relevant today. He also deals with tempo-losing moves in the Queen’s Pawn openings — for instance, the Marshall Defense against the Queen’s Gambit:
This is very much a patzer’s move — but it was really Nimzowitsch’s discussion of the refutation that brought the concept of tempo in the opening to life for me, even when I read it six years ago. Of course, it should be common knowledge that White is already significantly ahead here: 3.cxd5! Qxd5 4.Nc3 or 3…Nxcd5 4.e4 and White has gained tempi for increasing their lead in development. Nimzo also deals with pawn-grabbing by enemy queens and how to properly punish craven greed.
Additionally, he deals with “releasing the tension” — the idea is to engage in exchanges in order to free up your game, “surrendering in the center” before striking back with development and/or pawn breaks — something Black must often do against White in aggressive 1.e4 openings. For instance: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 (releasing the tension, and surrendering the center) 4.Nxd4 Nf6 (development!) 5.Nxc3 bxc3 6.Bd3 d5 (“Freeing your game.”)
Admittedly, I still find that getting lost in the details of these generalized concepts isn’t the most helpful when you’re trying to learn an opening — but it retroactively explains good opening play, and I found this chapter to make a lot more sense than it did six years ago — and in some part due to the new edition that Fishbein has created.
Chapter 2, “The Open File for the Rook”, is self-explanatory, though in Nimzowitsch’s parlance, he is referring to both “open" and “semi-open” files — any file where your rook is not staring at its own pawn. Nimzo helpfully remarks “The ultimate goal of all operations on the open file is penetration to the seventh or eight rank and command thereof”. He talks about gradual and violent means of gaining access to and controlling these, as well as the importance of the “outpost”.
Here’s where I felt things got really interesting.
This is the same as the first position we looked at in the review when discussing Nimzo’s unfortunate newspaper company analogy — which has thankfully been excised by Fishbein to keep things on a roll:
Now, according to Nimzowitsch, the Knight on d5 constitutes an outpost: “Our own piece on an open file (usually in the opponent’s camp), defended by a pawn.”
Is that how you would define an outpost? Nowadays, I would think not — generally outposts are considered squares unassailable whatsoever by an enemy pawn. But for Nimzowitsch, it is. His idea is that if Black plays c6, then the d6 pawn becomes permanently weak — so no matter if the pawn is there. d5 is a great square for the knight, so it is effectively an outpost, even if it technically isn’t (by today’s general consensus, anyway).
In another position, Nimzowitsch says that the following is not an outpost:
I’m not getting into these weeds to criticize Nimzo’s concept of an outpost. In fact, I think that his reasoning is interesting and somewhat instructive (in substance, he’s not being dogmatic, he just has different definitions than we do today). But this is an example of how coming to My System FastTrack with an open mind might bring you new insights (for instance, in the prior outpost example, c7-c6 making d6 weak, which makes d5 an outpost for the White Knight).
Chapter 3 continues the natural course of discussion from the open file to the rooks on “The Seventh and Eighth Ranks”. I feel like the examples chosen were good, and it contains one of the greatest games Nimzowitsch ever played — the “Immortal Zugzwang Game”. This game is a treat to play through, and I’ve seen it many times, but I’m struck by how illustrative it is to explain just how powerful a rook on the seventh rank can become.
Chapter 4, “The Passed Pawn and the Blockade”, gives a basic treatment of the creation of passed pawns. It also contains one of the most famous Nimzowitsch quotes of all time, one that transcends all criticism:
“The passed pawn is a criminal that must be put under lock and key. Mild measures like police surveillance are not enough!”
— by “put under lock and key”, Nimzowitsch means “blockade”. I found Nimzowitsch’s examples of how to do this economically — with an emphasis on the power of the knight to constrain these “dangerous criminals” — still to be refreshingly instructive. In particular, Game 12 (Nimzovich - Behting) contains a memorable statement by Nimzowitsch contra mundum:
6.Ne3!!
“…even if the whole world played 6.Nc3, I would still consider the knight move to e3 as more correct, purely in accordance with the demands of the System.”
The final two chapters (5, “The Elements of Endgame Strategy” and 6, “Tactics that Serve the Strategy”) are both instructive, if perhaps a bit less memorable. These contain some classic concepts in strategic endgames, and we even get a visit from the Opera Game (because Nimzowitsch knew his own classics too!) in the chapter on tactics. Because Nimzowitsch’s goal was to create a “System” for people to think and play by, it makes sense to include topics on these — I just didn’t particularly find these chapters the most inspiring.
Positional Play
Part 2 covers “Positional Play”, and according to Fishbein received some major editing compared to the minor reorganization of Part 1. Fishbein breaks down this part into 8 chapters, which are mostly relatively short compared to Part 1’s entries.
Chapter 7 covers “Prophylaxis”. Nowadays the concept of prophylaxis is ubiquitous with modern chess — even to weaker players. “Preventing the opponent’s plan” is part-and-parcel of any good chess player’s toolkit today. But this concept was revolutionary at first when Nimzo spelled it out a century ago. It’s here where Nimzo says something I find rather provocative, and perhaps even a bit undercooked: “The crux of positional play is prophylaxis!” What did my fellow chesspunks think?
Not unanimous at all! Many people signaled some disagreement in the responses to the post. I think some of the disagreements came from their working definition of “Prophylaxis”. Nimzowitsch views prophylaxis as “an energetic and deliberate prevention of events that might be strategically undesirable” — he breaks this down further into two positional threats that this usually occurs in: freeing pawn moves by the opponent, and our own pieces [losing] contact with important squares. To put it another way, Nimzowitsch feels this is actually about prevention for both defensive and offensive purposes and gives examples of both flavors. This is a useful frame of mind to approach the subject — it’s not purely attack or defense — it’s just core to positional play (in the System, anyway).
For what it’s worth, Fishbein agrees that Nimzo’s statement about prophylaxis was spoken while his formulation of the concept was still in process and makes a long note at the end of the chapter to give some following historical context, which I found to be both helpful and interesting. In general, I think that Fishbein’s edits are welcome and respectful to the original vision of the book.
Next comes chapter 8 on “Pawn Chains”. While the positions that occur in this chapter are relatively out of fashion, the general concepts of how to deal with pawn chains still applies quite a bit. Of note is how Nimzowitsch would replace pawns with pieces in order to blockade the enemy pawn chain in the French Advance:
Chapter 9 deals with “The Center” — but I think that the main theme is the center as it relates to pieces, not pawns. Therefore, it might better be termed “centralization” instead. Syntax aside, I thought this was one of the better chapters in part 2, due to the clarity of the selected examples — including one that Nimzo terms his most devastating loss in his (then) 22-year career.
Chapter 10 is all about “Doubled Pawns”. It’s perhaps a bit surprising that Nimzowitsch isn’t nearly as dogmatic as one might expect about this. He views them as a static weakness that can have dynamic strength, and therefore he discusses both how to use them and how to play against them. These are ideas that I have not seen discussed in many of the club-player level chess strategy books that I’ve read. For instance, Nimzo believes that you should provoke the doubled pawns to advance in order to weaken them. How applicable this advice is in all situations, I cannot tell, but the examples given (in Fishbein’s edition, one is pulled from Praxis) are rather thought-provoking.
Chapter 11, “Restraint” deals with the restraint of enemy movement — particularly pawns. Therefore it reads like an extension of “Prophylaxis”. I found his treatment of “mysterious rook moves” a bit entertaining. But another concept he touches on is “qualitative pawn majority”. Now, as far as I can tell, this is actually referring to the attacking chances that a pawn chain may give you on a particular part of the board, even when the pawns technically are symmetrical — in other words, I think this mostly deals with how space contributes to an attack against the enemy kingside or queenside and how to use it correctly. This is one example where I think chess language has just moved on to greener pastures.
Chapter 12 is probably the most interesting one in the whole book for me: “The Isolated Queen’s Pawn and Its Descendants”. Nimzo taxonomizes the IQP, the “isolated pawn pair”, and “Hanging Pawns”. IQP and Hanging Pawns are well-known — by “isolated pawn pair” he refers to a two-pawn chain that is otherwise isolated (e.g. c3 and d4). When the backwards pawn moves up, this transitions from an “isolated pawn pair” to “hanging pawns.” Game 34 (Rubinstein - Nimzovich) shows an evolutionary sequence from IQP to IPP to HP in a single game (and even back to IPP):
I found this treatment rather memorable and educational. Time will tell if I can turn this knowledge into any semblance of skill. But I feel like I genuinely learned something new from this game in particular.
The final two chapters, on “The Bishop Pair” and “Playing against Two Weaknesses” are relatively brief. I heard from Fishbein on his live panel interview with Ben Johnson that the chapter on the principle of two weaknesses was possibly the highest level subject that Nimzo broached, and that he was really scratching the surface on a deep concept that wouldn’t truly be understood until decades later. Hence, his given examples were relatively sparse here. If I’m being honest, these two chapters felt abruptly shortened. It makes sense to do this given how advanced these ideas were — Nimzo was really ahead of his time and kind of flying blindly where no one else before had tread.
Why is My System FastTrack Edition worth reading today?
At the risk of repeating myself, why would we read this older book when there are many competent newer works with updated games today?
Firstly, GM Fishbein has made My System FastTrack Edition very readable. While there are some moments where the English translation, even here, feels a bit rigid, overall I feel Alex has done an admirable job of translating the essence of what Nimzowitsch was trying to say in the original language.
Secondly, Nimzowitsch’s personality continues to shine through — but with none of the rough edges. What you’re reading here is akin to a sermon by a passionate believer in his own ideas of chess, who so lived his life on the chessboard that it was the lens by which he saw the world. There’s a reason why My System remains so quotable — “Restrain! Blockade! Destroy!”. It’s because at his best Nimzowitsch’s analogies endure the test of time.
Thirdly, the first half of My System FastTrack Edition is in particular very easy to learn from and understand — and the examples given were dutifully supervised by Fishbein to ensure this was the case. It breaks things down to such a level that I would think a player rated 1100 and up would be able to, with a chessboard in front of them, play through these games and pretty quickly understand Nimzowitsch’s analysis and annotations. Since most of the fat has been cut, what we have left is, as Alex says, a “textbook” — something intended to teach without confusing. The second half, where Nimzo begins to synthesize the elements into a systematic manner of play, is suited for players perhaps rated 1300 or 1400 and up, though it is much more difficult material than in the first half. New ideas and concepts are introduced organically, so much so that the book doesn’t require a glossary in order to understand what Nimzo’s saying.
Fourthly, there are certain concepts that I think this book explains in ways that even more modern books don’t do better — including the “flow” of opening and development, how to fight against and restrain mobile enemy pawns, and understanding the IQP and Hanging Pawns.
Fifthly, the vast majority of games Nimzo analyzes are from his or his own peer’s scores. For historical purposes I always find this interesting. We have our classics — Nimzo had his! And he (at least in this edition) respectfully treats even his ideological rivals (chief among them Tarrasch).
Lastly, the given game examples, due to the relatively primitive nature of positional chess at the time My System was written, can be exceptionally clear at expressing the core concepts. Nowadays, it’s customary to see high-level chess with extremely accurate defenses by both sides — but back then mismatches were clearer and therefore more instructive. Imperfection in chess is usually more instructive than perfection and here there it is no different.
Concluding thoughts
Overall, it probably can’t be all things to all people, but My System FastTrack Edition is by far the best way to read My System, if your desire is purely for chess improvement (e.g. to treat it as a “textbook”). What it (mercifully) lacks in original historical anecdotes it makes up for in concise and clear examples, thankfully and non-intrusively selected and edited by GM Alex Fishbein, who has done a stellar job to re-introduce a classic to a modern audience — a nice combination of chess instruction and chess culture.
4/5
You can pick up My System FastTrack Edition on Amazon. There is also a ForwardChess version available.