Nimzowitsch never beat Capablanca, but fared better against Alekhine.

This hypermodern opening was developed by Grandmaster Aron Nimzowitsch who introduced it to master-level chess in the early 20th century.

Nimzowitsch eventually moved to Copenhagen in 1922, which coincided with his rise to the world chess elite, where he lived for the rest of his life in one small rented room.

Grandmaster ( GM ) Raymond Keene writes that Nimzowitsch " was one of the world's leading grandmasters for a period extending over a quarter of a century, and for some of that time he was the obvious challenger for the world championship.

Tied for second with 12 points were Aron Nimzowitsch and Rudolf Spielmann.

He had a strong affinity for knights rather than bishops, a characteristic that is attributed to the influence of Aron Nimzowitsch.

The game Friedrich Saemisch – Aron Nimzowitsch, Copenhagen 1923, is often called the " Immortal Zugzwang Game " because some consider the final position to be a rare instance of zugzwang occurring in the middlegame ( for the position see Zugzwang ).

Marshall finished fifth at the St. Petersburg tournament in 1914, behind World Champion Lasker, future World Champions Capablanca and Alekhine, and former World Championship challenger Tarrasch, but ahead of the players who did not qualify for the final: Ossip Bernstein, Rubinstein, Nimzowitsch, Blackburne, Janowski, and Gunsberg.

Nimzowitsch for example delighted in showing how games could be won through indirect control of the center, challenging some of Tarrasch's dogmatic views that the center had to be occupied by pawns.

In 1934, he tied for 6th-7th with Aron Nimzowitsch in Zürich ( Alekhine won ).

In 1925, he tied for third / fourth place with Frank Marshall, behind Aron Nimzowitsch and Akiba Rubinstein, in Marienbad.

In it, Nimzowitsch tells how to play for a positional advantage.

Nimzowitsch supplemented many of the earlier simplistic assumptions about chess strategy by enunciating in his turn a further number of general concepts of defensive play aimed at achieving one's own goals by preventing realization of the opponent's plans.

An acolyte of Siegbert Tarrasch, his sound, strategic play enabled him to defeat a number of the world's top players, including David Bronstein, Aron Nimzowitsch and Milan Vidmar.

Aron Nimzowitsch ( or Aron Isayevich Nimtsovich, or Aaron Nimzovich ) (, ; born Aron Niemzowitsch ) ( 7 November 1886 – 16 March 1935 ) was a Russian-born, Danish leading chess master and a very influential chess writer.

He was also vital in the development of two important systems in the French Defence, the Winawer Variation ( in some places called the Nimzowitsch Variation ; its moves are 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Bb4 ) and the Advance Variation ( 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 ).

In 1913 / 14, he finished eighth in Saint Petersburg ( All Russian Masters ' Tournament – eighth Russian championship ; Alekhine and Aron Nimzowitsch came joint first ).< ref >

The same sacrificial pattern was echoed in a number of later games, notably Nimzowitsch – Tarrasch, St Petersburg 1914 ; Miles – Browne, Lucerne 1982 ; and Polgar – Karpov, Seventh Essent 2003.

In addition, 1. Nc3 d5 2. e4 reaches a position in the Scandinavian Defense ; 1. Nc3 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. e4 leads to a Scotch Four Knights Game ; 1. Nc3 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. e4 Bc5 or 3 ... g6 gives a Three Knights Game ; 1. Nc3 Nc6 2. d4 d5 3. e4, or 2 ... e5 and now 3. d5 Nce7 4. e4 or 3. dxe5 Nxe5 4. e4, yields a Nimzowitsch Defense ; and 1. Nc3 b6 2. e4 Bb7 3. d4 is an Owen's Defense.

2 ... e5, transposing to a double king-pawn opening, may be the best move, but is unlikely to appeal to the hard-core Nimzowitsch player.

Born in Riga in Livonia, then part of the Russian Empire, the Jewish German-speaking Nimzowitsch came from a wealthy family, where he learned chess from his father, who was a merchant.

During the 1917 Russian Revolution, Nimzowitsch was in the Baltic war zone.

When in form, Nimzowitsch was very dangerous with the black pieces, scoring many fine wins over top players.

" GM Jan Hein Donner called Nimzowitsch " a man who was too much of an artist to be able to prove he was right and who was regarded as something of a madman in his time.

For example, he once missed first prize in a tournament in Berlin by losing to Sämisch, and when it became clear he was going to lose the game, Nimzowitsch stood up on the table and shouted, " Gegen diesen Idioten muss ich verlieren!

Nimzowitsch was annoyed by his opponents ' smoking.

Kmoch was in fact a great admirer of Nimzowitsch, and the subject of the parody himself was amused at the effort.

Ebralidze was a supporter of Nimzowitsch and Capablanca, and his scientific approach to chess discouraged wild tactics and dubious combinations.

Aron Nimzowitsch: a Reappraisal ( 1974 ) is much admired and was revised and translated into Russian in 1986 ,< ref name =" OxfordCompanion ">

His highest rank was number six in the world, albeit with a slightly lower rating, in May 1933, behind only Alekhine, Kashdan, Flohr, Capablanca, and Euwe, and ahead of such giants as Aron Nimzowitsch and Akiba Rubinstein.

He was a great target of the hypermodern school, led by Richard Réti, Aron Nimzowitsch, and Savielly Tartakower, all of whom criticized his ideas as dogmatic.

This plan is named the Hanham Variation ( after the American chess master James Moore Hanham ) and was favoured by Aron Nimzowitsch.

Aaron Nimzowitsch was white, and Adolf Albin was black.

However, this was only part of the Hypermodern framework — which Nimzowitsch encapsulated in the seminal chess work called My System which was to greatly influence many future generations of chess players.

Nimzowitsch had lengthy and somewhat bitter dogmatic conflicts with Tarrasch over whose ideas constituted ' proper ' chess.

Kmoch also wrote an article about his nine years with Nimzowitsch:

* Efim Bogoljubov vs Aron Nimzowitsch, San Remo 1930, NimzoIndian Defence, Bogoljubov Variation ( E23 ), 0 – 1 Another encounter of hypermodern heavyweights sees Nimzowitsch with two knights in the endgame, and he handles them perfectly.

Favoured by Nimzowitsch, 4 ... b6 is a move in accordance with the spirit of the Nimzo-Indian: Black fianchettoes his light-squared bishop to increase his control over e4.

He had plus scores against Richard Teichmann (+ 6-2 = 6 ), David Janowski (+ 3-1 = 0 ), Carl Schlechter (+ 2-1 = 11 ) and Aron Nimzowitsch (+ 3-2 = 3 ), and level scores with Siegbert Tarrasch and Géza Maróczy.

However, after the end of the First World War, his playing style underwent a radical change, and he became one of the principal proponents of hypermodernism, along with Aron Nimzowitsch and others.

Nimzowitsch advocated controlling the center of the board with distant pieces rather than with pawns, thus inviting the opponent to occupy the center with pawns which can then become objects of attack.

Larsen's Opening ( also called the Nimzowitsch – Larsen Attack, Nimzo – Larsen Attack, Queen's Fianchetto Opening, Owen's Opening or the Greek Attack ) is a chess opening starting with the move:

White can also transpose to a line of the Nimzowitsch Defence with 3. e4.

Most were about chess, including books on the opening ( Winning Chess Openings ), the middlegame ( 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations ), and game collections ( Great Brilliancy Prize Games of the Chess Masters ), as well as biographies of Alexander Alekhine, José Raúl Capablanca, Paul Keres, Emanuel Lasker ( co-written with Reuben Fine ), Paul Morphy ( Andrew Soltis completed and published this book years after Reinfeld's death ), and Aron Nimzowitsch.