Overprotection

Overprotection is a genuine Nimzowitsch coinage, and the German original word is documented. The online German text of Nimzowitsch's work at nimzowitsch.net gives the chapter title 3. Ueberdeckung und andere Formen der Prophylaxe, that is, overprotection and other forms of prophylaxis, and quotes Nimzowitsch claiming the idea for himself: strategically important points should be overprotected, says a law discovered by me. The same text stresses that only significant, strong points, and not weak ones, are to be overprotected. Wikipedia's biography lists overprotection of pieces and pawns under attack among Nimzowitsch's notable contributions, and its chess-strategy article says the approach of always defending one's pieces has an antecedent in the theory of Aron Nimzowitsch, who referred to it as overprotection. Wikipedia's glossary confirms that Nimzowitsch coined the term and was a proponent of the strategy. The ideas were published in Mein System, issued as a series of five brochures from 1925 to 1927, and Hans Kmoch parodied the overprotection doctrine in the Wiener Schachzeitung of February 1928.

First documented: 1925-1927 — Aron Nimzowitsch, Mein System (originally published as five brochures, 1925-1927); the German term Ueberdeckung appears as a chapter heading in Nimzowitsch's text as reproduced at nimzowitsch.net