The Blockade

“First restrain, then blockade, finally destroy!” was the war cry of the celebrated 1920s writer and World Chess Championship aspirant Aron Nimzowitsch. Subsequently eclipsed by his classic My System, this pioneering work (The Blockade) has now been rescued and published, with a new translation, for the very first time in dual-language format (English and German). The Editor, Philip Hughes, webmaster of the Uncrowned Kings website, has delved into chess history and provided extensive appendices in order to bring the reader a better picture of chess in the 1920s and particularly 1923-4. The chess philosophy developed by Aron Nimzowitsch, the Father of Modern Chess and the godfather of Hyper-modernism, clearly instructs the chess student on many important aspects of the game. The teachings of The Blockade reflect on the chessboard the military thinking of the day, trench warfare and strangulation, as exemplified in the recently concluded First World War. Nimzowitsch’s insights remain relevant today and should be regarded as essential reading for the improving player.
The introduction to this new edition of The Blockade is written by Grandmaster Ray Keene, author of a celebrated biography of Nimzowitsch and chess correspondent of The Times, The Sunday Times, The Spectator and the International Herald Tribune.