Hypermodern chess

Hypermodernism is a school of chess that emerged after World War I. It featured challenges to the chess ideas of central European masters, including Wilhelm Steinitz's approach to the centre and the rules established by Siegbert Tarrasch. The Hypermoderns demonstrated their new ideas with games and victories. Aron Nimzowitsch showed that games could be won through indirect control of the center, breaking with Tarrasch's view that the center must be occupied by pawns. Nimzowitsch advocated controlling the center of the board with distant pieces rather than with pawns, thus inviting the opponent to occupy the center with pawns, which can then become targets of attack. This was part of the hypermodern framework, which Nimzowitsch encapsulated in his seminal book My System, which greatly influenced many chess players. It introduced and formalized concepts of the pawn chain, overprotection, undermining, prophylaxis, restraint, rook on the seventh rank, knight outposts, the dynamics of the isolated queen's pawn, and other areas of chess.

Although none of the primary exponents of the Hypermodern School ever achieved the title of World Chess Champion, they were among the world's strongest players. World Champion Alexander Alekhine was associated with hypermodernism, but his style was more of a blend with the Classical School.

In practice, hypermodernism has not replaced the classical theory of Steinitz and Tarrasch. Instead, modern chess textbooks describe hypermodernism as an addition, or extension, to classical theory.

Hypermodern openings include the Réti Opening, King's Indian Defence, Queen's Indian Defence, Nimzo-Indian Defence, Nimzowitsch Defense, Grünfeld Defence, Bogo-Indian Defence, Old Indian Defence, Catalan Opening, King's Indian Attack, Alekhine's Defence, Modern Defence, Pirc Defence, Larsen's opening, Sokolsky Opening, and to a lesser degree the English Opening. Openings such as 1.a3 do not constitute hypermodern openings since, although they delay the occupation of the centre with pawns, they also delay piece development.

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