Aron Nimzowitsch wrote in his book “My System” that one should “Never play to win a pawn while your development is yet unfinished.” Does anyone have a favorite game which illustrates this point?
Steven Craig Miller
Chess Coach (Lincoln-Way West High School, New Lenox, IL)
Sicilian poison pawn variations come to mind. Evans Gambit…and the Danish is fun for younger players to understand how nasty two bishops strafing the board can be.
Recently I played a blitz game as white against a blown Caro-Kann where I allowed black to play Qb6 and Qxb2 while I completed development. With so many threats against the queen and king position, black only managed to develop the KB and KN after that.
This is Polugaevsky’s first example in The Sicilian Labyrinth: