Aron Nimzowitsch was a Latvian born chess grandmaster who played under the Danish flag.
He was born November 7th, 1886 and died March 16th, 1935 and was the most influential chess player in history to never have become world champion.
In 1925 he wrote the book "Mein System" (My System) which may very well be the most important book in chess history almost every chess master has read "My System" (99 out of 100) and if they've not read it they must have acquired the knowledge in this book.
Without this frame work it is impossible to become a chess master.
My System flew in the face of commonly held beliefs about the center and introduced concepts like overprotection, blockades, prophylaxis, and fianchetto development of bishops.
Sadly for poor Nimzowitsch his greatest failure was being born in the era of Alexander Alekhine and Jose Capablanca both huge talents and World Champions.
Nimzowitsch was never able to best Capablanca however he did Alekhine once in a short match in 1914 match held at St Petersburg .
His most important wins in are his first place finishes in at Copenhagen 1923, Marienbad 1925, Dresden 1926, Hannover 1926, and the Carlsbad 1929 chess tournament.
Nimzowitsch will live on forever in chess as there are many openings and variations named after him.
The Nimzo-Indian Defense (1.
d4 Nf6 2.
c4 e6 3.
Nc3 Bb4) being the most popular and it is often feared by white.
Black and use this to his advantage and you'll find players who prefer the Benoni Defense (1.
d4 Nf6 2.
c4 c5 3.
d5.
) will use this move order of playing 2...
e6 before 3...
c5, in order to avoid the Taimanov Variation with a strong advantage to white.
In return you'll have players with the white pieces avoid 3.
Nc3 so as not to face 3.
...
Bb4, so many times a Benoni has actually paid homage to the Nimzo-Indian by its carefully crafted move order.
You will also find the rarely played Nimzowitsch defense (1.
e4 Nc6) as well as openings lines with 1.
Nf3 followed by 2.
b3 often referenced as the Nimzowitsch-Larsen Attack.
You'll also find lines the Sicilian Defense as well as the French Defense that bear his name.
Nimzowitsch was a bit of a character there are many famous stories of him saying or doing some outlandish thing.
He avoided being drafted in the army by claiming a fly was always stuck on his head.
Upon failing to take first in a rapid transit tournament (speed chess) due to his losing to Samsich in the critical game he jumped up from the table and shouted "That I should lose to this idiot!" Now that should have been the last chapter to My System "Don't lose to that idiot"