The digital form of the notes of this book has been kindly provided to Chessgames.com by Ray Keene.

INTRODUCTION

Aron Nimzowitsch was the great chess thinker as well as aspirant for the world championship in the late 1920s and early 1930s. His influence on subsequent generations of players has been enormous and his espousal of his own defence, the Nimzo-Indian, 1 d4 ♘f6 2 c4 e6 3 ♘c3 ♗b4, helped it to become, perhaps, the most popular and effective weapon against 1 d4.

Study of Nimzowitsch's games will be of immense benefit to the chess student who wishes to follow a thematic strategic line. By doing so, it is possible to prepare such plans for one's own chessboard battles and then carry them out, secure in the knowledge that the intellectual spadework has been done well in advance by a master of the art.

Games which are particularly valuable in this sense are the thematic dark-square domination against Maroczy from Bled 1931, the superlative demonstration of good knight against bad bishop against Henneberger at Winterthur 1931, the strangulation against Tartakower in Nimzowitsch's greatest tournament triumph at Carlsbad 1929, and the ruthless exploitation of doubled pawns against the two times world championship challenger Bogoljubow from that same tournament. An absolute masterpiece of planning was his game against Levenfish. It has inspired many subsequent generations of masters and grandmasters.