No Move That Does Not Lose

The game, move by move

A Winawer French

1. 1. e4 King’s pawn
2. 1… e6 e6 — the French
3. 2. d4 d4
4. 2… d5 d5
5. 3. Nc3 The knight out
6. 3… Bb4 Bb4 — the Winawer The sharpest French there is, and Nimzowitsch gets none of the sharpness out of it.
7. 4. e5 e5, shutting the centre And the centre stays shut for the rest of the game. Everything that follows happens on the c-file and the light squares.
8. 4… c5 c5, striking at it
9. 5. Bd2 The bishop to d2
10. 5… Ne7 The knight to e7
11. 6. Nb5 The knight to b5
12. 6… Bxd2+ The bishops come off, with check Black gives up the dark-squared bishop. In a position this shut, that is the piece he needed and the one he can least afford to trade.
13. 7. Qxd2 The queen recaptures
14. 7… O-O Black castles
15. 8. c3 c3
16. 8… b6 b6

The knight to d6 and the bishop off

1. 9. f4 f4, propping up e5
2. 9… Ba6 Ba6, looking for a trade
3. 10. Nf3 The knight out
4. 10… Qd7 The queen to d7
5. 11. a4 a4
6. 11… Nbc6 The second knight to c6
7. 12. b4 b4
8. 12… cxb4 Taken
9. 13. cxb4 Recaptured
10. 13… Bb7 The bishop back to b7
11. 14. Nd6 Nd6 — the square the game is played round A knight on d6 in a French is the classical bind: it cannot be taken, it cannot be chased, and it takes c8, e8, f7 and b7 away at once.
12. 14… f5 f5, shutting the position further
13. 15. a5 a5, at the pawn
14. 15… Nc8 The knight back to c8, to challenge it
15. 16. Nxb7 The knight takes the bishop instead Trading the good knight for the bishop, because what is left of Black is worse than what is left of White.
16. 16… Qxb7 The queen recaptures

Every piece squeezed

1. 17. a6 a6 — the queen shut out A pawn on a6 that pins Black’s queen to the defence of b7 for the rest of the game.
2. 17… Qf7 The queen to f7
3. 18. Bb5 The bishop to b5 On the light squares, where Black no longer has a bishop. It is the piece that finally forces the last concession on move twenty-nine.
4. 18… N8e7 The knight to e7
5. 19. O-O White castles
6. 19… h6 h6
7. 20. Rfc1 The rook to c1
8. 20… Rfc8 The rook to c8
9. 21. Rc2 The rook doubled on c2
10. 21… Qe8 The queen to e8
11. 22. Rac1 And the second rook to c1 Two rooks and a queen on one file, against two rooks and nothing. Alekhine is not threatening anything yet; he is making sure Black cannot.
12. 22… Rab8 The rook to b8
13. 23. Qe3 The queen to e3
14. 23… Rc7 The rook to c7
15. 24. Rc3 The rook to c3
16. 24… Qd7 The queen to d7
17. 25. R1c2 The rooks tripled Rook, rook, queen — three pieces on the c-file with a pawn on c3 in front of them, which is the shape Nimzowitsch’s own book calls overprotection.
18. 25… Kf8 Kf8 — the king starts walking Not for safety. He is the only piece Black has that can still move without losing something.
19. 26. Qc1 The queen to c1
20. 26… Rbc8 The second rook to c8

Out of moves

1. 27. Ba4 The bishop to a4
2. 27… b5 b5, the last active try
3. 28. Bxb5 Taken
4. 28… Ke8 Ke8
5. 29. Ba4 The bishop back to a4
6. 29… Kd8 Kd8 — three king moves in five
7. 30. h4 h4
8. 30… h5 h5
9. 31. Kh2 Kh2 — a waiting move of White’s own He has them to spare. That is the whole difference between the two positions.
10. 31… g6 g6, the last pawn move Black has
11. 32. g3 g3 — and Black resigned A pawn going one square, threatening nothing. Nimzowitsch has thirteen legal moves and every one of them gives something up: the knights are tied to c8 and e7, the rooks to the c-file, the queen to b7, and the king has run out of squares. There is no combination in this game anywhere.