Aaron Isayevich Nimzovich (1886-1935) is considered, along with Breyer and Reti, to be a founding father of the Hypermodern School. A preeminent theoretician, Nimzovich was also a potential challenger for the World Championship title: in 1926 Capablanca accepted his match offer, though Nimzovich was unable to raise the necessary funding. Nimzovich was from the beginning an irascible maverick. Smarting from a Tarrasch critique of his play in 1904, he undertook a lengthy reexamination of the classical dogma, which led to the publication of his classic works Die Blockade and Mein System (both 1925). From 1922 until his death, Nimzovich lived in a single rented room in Copenhagen. His unsociable nature and sometimes outlandish behavior at one tournament caused the entire body of players to register a protest against him (he was reportedly doing calisthenics on stage.) On another occasion, after losing to weaker player, he climbed atop the table and roared: “Gegen diesen Idoten muss ich verlieren!” (”That I should lose to this idiot!”) Seymon Zinovievich Alapin (1856-1923) was another theoretician and opening analyst of note. The moves: 1. e4 e5 2.Ne2 … still bear his name. He achieved some tournament success, but was no match for Nimzovich in the game below, where Nimzo shows that the lessons of Morphy and the Romantics were not lost on him.

[Click HERE for floating game board.]

Nimzovich/Alapin: Riga, 1913; French Defense: 1. e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3. Nc3 (Nimzovich deviates from his usual 3.e5, a Steinitz move he revitalized around 1911 and was central to his theory of blockade.) Nf6 4.ed Nd5 5.Nf3 c5 6.Nd5 Qd5 7.Be3 cd 8.Nd4 a6 9.Be2 Qg2 10.Bf3 Qg6 11.Qd2 e5 12.0-0-0 (An offer á la Morphy: White’s tremendous lead in development is already decisive.) ed 13.Bd4 Nc6 14.Bf6! (The beginning of a startling combo. Black is smashed in four moves!)Qf6 15.Rhe1+ Be7 16.Bc6+ Kf8 17.Qd8+ Bd8 18.Re8++ Yassir! A “Vich-slappin’”of the first order!