A RON NIMZOVICH The First Chess Lesson, from“ How I Became a Grandmaster”
translated by Momir Radovic
ET’ S BEGIN at the beginning, that is, by criticizing my very first lesson. I was“ shown the moves.” Was that the right thing to do?“ Well of course it was,” my esteemed reader will say.“ You cannot do without that.” But my whole point is that, in this case, the reader is mistaken: this approach is fundamentally false. You cannot take a boy who is entirely new to the game and immediately confound him by showing him that the rook moves like this and the bishop like that, that the pawn crawls forward at such a ridiculous snail’ s pace, that the knight leaps eccentrically all over the place, that the queen can go anywhere she pleases, that the rook moves and takes in straight lines, but the pawn moves straight forward and takes diagonally, etc.
Dreariness will be the only result from all these demonstrations. Information of this kind, which the beginner absorbs, is purely formal, without a trace of vitality or significance, and by flooding him with all this mass of material, he may only sink into depression.
No, one should not teach first principles in this wise, but quite otherwise. A bit less formal ballast and a bit more substance, that is the basic principle! But let us show concretely how we think that the first two or three lessons should be conducted.
First lesson: Familiarization with the board, understanding of the demarcation between White and Black, and the center of the board.
The Rook. Understanding about ranks and files, drills and exercises:
White rook on e1( the student always has White pieces), black pawn on e6. In this position the rook is attacking the pawn.
Exercise: ask the student to attack the pawn. Then ask the student to attack it sideways, and, finally, from behind.
Next, form some obstacles on the board: white rook on h1, pawns on g2 and h4, king on f1, black pawn on d6. White attacks the d6-pawn by playing Rh1-h3-d3. Then a black rook is introduced to take the role of the defender of the d6-pawn.
This gives us a primitive basis to set up some basic combinations. For example: White has Ra1, Black has Rh8, Pc7, Pe5. Ask the student,“ How many moves does it take for the rook to attack both pawns at the same time?” Let’ s play: 1. Ra5 Re8 2. Rc5 Re7.
We move on by explaining the natural tendency for the rook to reach the seventh rank. Set the white rook on g1, the enemy king on h8 and explain to the student that the king attacks one square diagonally.“ Let’ s go with the rook invade the seventh rank!” We play: 1. Rg7 Kxg7. The student is given a pawn on h5.“ Let us defend the entry point on the seventh rank!” 1. h6 and then 2. Rg7.
In this way, the student will spend an hour or two without getting bored and will intuitively grasp the basic concepts, as well as the basics of combinatorial chess.
Notice how the entire first hour of chess actually uses a single rook and pawn while the king’ s movements are mentioned just in passing. At the same time, a lively play drives out all formal approach. The rook is to attack the student’ s pawn; if the student manages to save it, student wins.
The reader will, I hope, have got our basic idea: from the very start we are playing— fighting, battling— and have no intention of giving precedence to any formal approach. And we are inclined to ascribe a decisive significance to the initial impression formed by the student after the first lesson. One’ s interest must be appealed to, one must feel from the onset that this is a game in which victory is both possible and gratifying.
When studying the queen( second lesson), it is a good thing to introduce the concept of the fork, that is, the simultaneous attack on two enemy pieces, which, by the way, has been partially addressed in the first lesson. And here, again, are practical examples and combinations ….
The third lesson is devoted to a study of the pawn: the pawn attacks an enemy piece, the pawn protects a friendly piece( through a series of examples), the pawn protects or creates a strong point( an outpost), etc. l
Source: Шахматный листок( Shakhmatny listok), 1929
8 The Chess Journalist Fall 2011