My System: FastTrack Edition - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1949859894 ISBN 13: 9781949859898

Publisher: Russell Enterprises, Inc., 2024

Synopsis

100 Years Later, Nimzovich Is Still Good for Your Chess!

Almost a century ago, a chess book about positional play and strategic concepts appeared on the chess scene. Written by a Latvian grandmaster residing in Denmark, it quickly took its place as one of the classics of chess literature. Since then, Aron Nimzovich’s magnum opus My System has been embraced by every generation of chessplayers.

However, there were some inherent flaws. For starters, it was quite “dense.” The reader had to plow through many subjective digressions and other literary detours before getting to the core concepts. Now American Grandmaster Alex Fishbein has adapted this classic for the modern chessplayer.

While remaining true to the original text – and with the same goals as his outstanding work with the FastTrack Edition of Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual – Fishbein has produced an eminently readable, modernized version of My System. The result is a book that not only retains the unique imagery of the original text, but a book that is also easy to understand by both club players and masters.

As the author stated in his preface: "Nimzovich’s ideas have stood the test of time and, if anything, are more relevant today. In his famous foreword to the Russian edition from 1974, Mikhail Tal wrote: 'This old book, sustaining many editions in different forms and different languages, is imbued with an elixir of eternal chess youth.' My aim was to retain that elixir in this new translation."

"Alex brings you the best of Nimzovich’s My System, erasing all misconceptions. As a newcomer to the game, you will feel blessed to learn pure, unmistakable strategies, while if you are an old chap like me, you will appreciate the fresh clarity, helping you re-evaluate your personal chess philosophy… Nimzovich is good for your chess, and a more coherent Nimzovich even better." – From the Foreword by GM Vassilios Kotronias

About this title

About the Author

American Grandmaster Alex Fishbein. He is one of the world’s renown endgame experts. He was co-editor editors of the fifth edition of the best-selling Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual and he also collaborated with German GM Karsten Müller on the Fasttrack Edition of DEM5.
His books for Russell Enterprises include The Scotch Gambit, The French Exchange Comes to Life, and the recently released Endgame Corner, with Karsten Müller. He writes a popular endgame column for the American Chess Magazine.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter 2
The Open File for the Rook

(1) Introduction

The open file is a cornerstone of chess strategy. In this chapter, we explain how to attack on an open file, how an outpost on the open file can break the opponent’s resistance, and how the ultimate goal of operating on the open file is to occupy the seventh or eighth rank.

First, let’s define what an open file is:

[diagram]

The b-, f-, and h-files are open for the white major pieces, while the d-file is closed. The h-file is only open starting from the h3-square.

A file is open for your rook if you have no pawn on that file (or if there is a pawn, it is hidden behind your rook, as on the h-file above).

Accordingly, to decide whether a file is open or closed, you do not need to take into account whether the opponent has any pieces or pawns on it. In fact, there is no essential difference between playing against a piece (or pawn) on the open file, or against a square on it.

(2) The creation of the open file by peaceful means, or by violent action. Pawns setting themselves up for attack.
By definition, to open a file you have to remove your own pawn from it. This can happen by peaceful means if our opponent feels compelled to trade one of our central pieces, and we recapture with a pawn. We stress: a central piece! For it threatens our opponent in all directions, which it can rarely do from the side of the board.

[diagram]

This position is from Thomas-Alekhine, a game which we will see in full later in this chapter. Black has placed his knights in the center, and White finds it necessary to trade them:

14.Nxd4 cxd4 (we have an open c-file now) 15.Nxd5 Qxd5 16.Bf3 Qd7 17.Bxb7 Qxb7

The open c-file is already felt. Not seeing a way to safeguard the pawn on c2, White moves it:

18.c4 dxc3

As a result, the d4-pawn is no longer in the way (any pawn can block our own pieces). Now Black will have two open files for his rooks:

19.bxc3 Rac8 20.Bb2 Rfd8

[diagram]

The simultaneous play on the open c- and d-files will be decisive, as we shall see in Game 3.

Therefore, try to post your pieces centrally, as long as they cannot be driven back by a pawn-roller! You can then provoke your opponent into exchanges that open files for you.

As a typical example of the forceful (or violent) opening of a file, let’s consider the following beginning of a game:

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bc4 Bc5 5.d3 d6 6.Be3 Bb6 7.Qd2 0-0 8.0-0–0 h6?

[diagram]
Black h-pawn is the
target of attack

Edition details

• Publisher: Russell Enterprises, Inc.
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1949859894
• ISBN 13: 9781949859898
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208
• Editor: Fishbein Alex