Luckily for Black, the same strategies and themes in the Nimzo Indian can be used in both (by using the dark squared strategy instead - putting the pawns on c5, d6, and e5).
This ends up being a really effective strategy because it gives White a permanent weakness and gives Black concrete plan on how to beat White.īecause the Nimzo Indian is so troublesome, White has ways to avoid it (by playing 3.Nf3) and transitioning into a Bogo-Indian defense or a Catalan.
a3) is where White lets Black execute his strategy and double his c- pawns (by trading the bishop for the Knight). The Nimzo-Indian defence can be attacked in four different ways based on White's fourth move: With the knight on c3 being the key defender of the e4 square, Black can focus his energy on controlling the e4 and the light squares.Double up the pawns on the c-file in exchange for his dark square bishop.Launch an attack on the Black King, since White needs to attack before White’s positional weakness (doubled c-pawns) become huge weaknesses during the endgame.Open up the position for the two bishops.The Nimzo can be played without needing to memorize lines or variations, and it is easy to switch to other variations (since the pawns end up closing up the position) Typically, then Black can attack on the Queenside, exchange pieces off and win the endgame. Then Black should close off the Kingside (by putting his Knight on h5 and pawn on f5) so White can’t successfully launch an attack. When this is done (called the Samisch Variation), Black wants to close up the board (by blocking white’s pawn center), so White can’t utilize his bishop pair as an advantage. The Nimzo Indian Defence is a chess opening where Black wants to give up his bishop pair to double white’s c-pawns on the Queenside.