Over Protection Correction

Mark Weeks from Belgium sent me this nice comment.


Just a note that your definition of over-protection ('denying your opponent tactical opportunities'), a Nimzovich term, is more like a definition of prophylaxis, another Nimzovich term. Over-protection is aiming your pieces at one of your own strong points, like a center square, and hoping that the combined action of those pieces will result in new opportunities. As you rightly point out, the idea behind prophylaxis is important, but the idea behind over-protection is something of a backwater.

It's also worth mentioning that 'denying your opponent tactical opportunities' could be stated 'denying your opponent *any* opportunities'. Many strong players -- Petrosian and Karpov come to mind -- were also expert at squelching both tactical *and* positional counterplay. - Mark