Descripción

The Philosopher and the Housewife Siegbert Tarrasch and Aron Nimzowitsch could be called the two vainest chess players in history.

This book tells the fascinating story of their lifelong rivalry. They clashed as personalities, as players and as chess writers, both searching for the truth in chess, but with very different perspectives.

Tarrasch is seen as the dogmatic theorist and, according to Nimzowitsch, didn’t offer much more than the well-meaning advice of a housewife.

Nimzowitsch is the philosopher, the designer of a complete ‘system’ that explains everything there is to know about chess to future generations of students.

Does chess history treat these giants fairly or are they mere caricatures?

The Philosopher and the Housewife

And what was the role of the third protagonist in this debate, Semyon Alapin, whom Nimzowitsch condescendingly called ‘an artist of variations’? These questions, and these different viewpoints, are at the heart of this in-depth investigation.

Hendriks offers a wonderful and often highly entertaining look at this great controversy. The many chess fragments nicely illustrate how our expertise has evolved in this turbulent period of chess history.

Tarrasch, Nimzowitsch and the Evolution of Chess

Willy Hendriks.(1966) is an International Master who has been working as a chess trainer for over thirty years. His bestselling book Move First, Think Later won the English Chess Federation Book of the Year Award in 2012. Hendriks has published two other widely acclaimed chess books, On the Origin of Good Moves (2020) and The Ink War (2022).

SAMPLE PAGES

Related book: Juegue primero, piense después

Preface

I do not limit myself to the game at hand, but search for the stable point in the flight of
the appearances, most often I abstract from the specific case towards the general, and I
set up a number of principles and doctrines, whose knowledge will improve the level of
play enormously.
Siegbert Tarrasch, Preface Die Moderne Schachpartie (1912)

But in the quiet lived and searched someone who loved the truth in chess and, in a tough
fight, endeavoured to discern its everlasting laws. And that person – was me. And what I
was lucky enough to find were strictly formulated laws of chess strategy expanded into a
harmonious whole.
Aron Nimzowitsch, Wiener Schachzeitung (1913)