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[SIDELNIKOV COVER] Moya sistema na praktike: Sbornik partiy [i.e. Chess Praxis: A Collection of Games]

Nimzovitsch, A.

Item #2857

Moscow; Leningrad: Giz, 1930. 239 pp.: 1 portrait. 23,3x15,6 cm. In original illustrated publisher’s cardboards. Rubbed edges, loss of the pieces of the spine, but otherwise very good. Period ink inscription on the front endpaper “t. Zagoryanskomu I priz v blits-turnire Ts. K. S. T. S. 6/VI 1930 g. Sekr. Byuro. 6/VI 30 g. Chlen pravleniya Ch.L.K.” [i.e. To Comrade Zagoryansky, 1st prize in the blitz tournament C. C. of the T. E. U. (Central Committee of the Trade Employees Union). 6/VI 1930. Bureau Secretary. 6/VI 1930. Member of the Board of Ch. L.K].

Provenance: Apparently from the collection of Evgeniy Zagoryansky (1910–1961), Soviet chess master and engineer. Zagoryansky was awarded the title of Master of Sport of the USSR in 1942 and was also active as a playwright and author. He wrote fiction on chess-related subjects as well as numerous articles on chess theory and other aspects of the game.

First Russian edition. One of 5,000 copies. Cover design by the famous Russian graphic artist and book illustrator, Nikolay Sedelnikov (1905-1994). Original German edition published in 1929. Translated from German by Ilya Maiselis (1894-1978), a Soviet chess player and theorist.

One of the most influential and instructive chess books ever published, Chess Praxis is the third and final major work of Aron Nimzowitsch (1886–1935), the “Stormy Petrel” of the chess world and founder of the Hypermodern movement.

Born in Riga in 1886, Nimzowitsch was introduced to chess by his father, a successful merchant and strong amateur player. He soon developed into a formidable tournament player and, after winning the Munich tournament in 1906, established himself among the leading masters of his generation. Following the First World War and the Russian Revolution, Nimzowitsch settled in Copenhagen, where he spent the remainder of his career. His tournament successes included first places at Copenhagen (1923), Dresden (1926), Karlsbad (1929), and Frankfurt (1930), while his increasingly original ideas on positional play made him one of the most influential theorists of the interwar period. In 1925, Nimzowitsch published Die Blockade and Mein System (My System), the latter becoming a landmark of modern chess theory. His ideas challenged the prevailing positional orthodoxy, advocating indirect control of the centre and the overprotection of strategically important pieces and pawns.

Chess Praxis (1929), a follow-up to Aron’s previous works, flew in the face of widely held orthodoxies enunciated by the dominant theorist of the era, Siegbert Tarrasch (1862-1934). In the book, which elaborated upon ideas set out in My System, the author challenged the guidelines of the previous generation and opposed commonly accepted practice of occupying the center by pawns. What Nimzowitsch instead suggested was controlling the center of the board with distant pieces, thus inviting the opponent to capture the center with pawns. Chess Praxis also emphasized concepts such as overprotection of pieces and pawns under attack, blockading of opposing pieces, prophylaxis etc. In contrast to My System, Nimzowitsch’s last book focused on both theory and practice: the author explained how his concepts worked and illustrated each possible maneuver situation by at least two of his own games (overall 109 games).

Overall, one of the essential classics of chess literature and one of the most important documents of the revolution in chess thought that took place during the 1920s.

Worldcat shows only 1 copy of the edition at the Cleveland Public Library.

Price: $450.00