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The hypermoderns
Control the centre from a distance: Réti beats Capablanca at New York in 1924.
The idea
Réti controls the centre from a distance and beats Capablanca.
- The knight on f3 controls d4 and e5 without a pawn.
- The bishop on b2 watches e5 from the long diagonal.
- The bishop on g2 looks down the other long diagonal.
In a game: If your opponent builds a big pawn centre, aim your pieces at it and strike later.
How the lesson begins
After the First World War a group of masters questioned the classical rules. Aaron Nimzovich, Richard Réti and Gyula Breyer argued that you can control the centre from a distance, with knights and with bishops on the long diagonals, instead of filling it with pawns. A big pawn centre can become a target. They were called the hypermoderns.
Nimzovich wrote My System and Réti wrote Modern Ideas in Chess. Here is Réti, with White, against the world champion José Raúl Capablanca at New York in 1924.
Réti puts no pawn in the centre. Both players put their bishops on the long diagonals.
- 1. Nf3 The knight on f3 controls d4 and e5 without a pawn.
- 1... Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. b4 The b-pawn takes space on the queenside.
- 3... Bg7 4. Bb2 The bishop goes to b2, on the long diagonal.
- 4... O-O 5. g3 b6 6. Bg2 And the other bishop goes to g2.
- 6... Bb7
A question
Which white pieces control the square e5 here?
Show the answer
The knight on f3 and the bishop on b2.
Right. Neither is a pawn, and neither stands in the centre, but both watch e5.