Introduction | 1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 | 1.e4 Nc6 2.Nc3 | 1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 d5 | Marshall Gambit | 1.e4 Nc6 2.others | Conclusion
Nimzowitsch Defence
This page last updated 05/Jul/2005 (i.e before the publication of Play 1...Nc6! by Christoph Wisnewski). © Marek Soszynski
1.e4 Nc6 starts the Nimzowitsch Defence, sometimes called “Nimzo's Other Defence” (so as not to confuse it with the Nimzo-Indian, 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4); Americans may know it as the “Nimzovich Defense.” It was championed by its namesake Aaron Nimzowitsch (1886-1935, pictured left). IM Bill Hartston called it “one of the great man's less successful ideas,” but Paul Keres (1916-1975) and Bent Larsen (b. 1935) tried it, and it was often played by Tony Miles (1955-2001). “This tricky and, objectively speaking, suspicious opening looked quite playable in [Tony's] hands,” according to GM Ruslan Sherbakov. Admittedly the defence is otherwise uncommon and relatively untested.
| The most complete and best-researched book in English on the Nimzowitsch Defence is by Hugh E. Myers, who has also edited a CD of games and analysis, The Nimzovich Defense Ultimate CD. Tim Harding produced an audio cassette (c. 1977), and later a Batsford book on it (1981); and there is much of a German book, 1...Sc6 ...aus allen Lagen (1995), by Harald Keilhack and Rainer Schlenker. | In addition there is a video on it by IM Andrew Martin, and (most of) A Complete Defence for Black (1996) by GM Raymond Keene and IM Byron Jacobs. However, their (and Miles's) preferred reply to 1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 is 2...e5 (allowing 3.Nf3, which transposes to the Scotch Game), whereas here I recommend Nimzowitsch's own 2...d5. |
The most recent work is the hardback, Modern Practice 1...Nc6, by the Russian GM Igor Berdichevsky. It consists of 331 games, old and modern, annotated in languageless, Informant style. Though there is little text, it does provide complete coverage against both 1.e4 and 1.d4.
In what follows I want to rapidly give the club player the bare bones of a Black repertoire based on 1.e4 Nc6. White is unlikely to know much of the theory - in fact there isn't a lot of settled analysis anyway, so you will be able to improvise without too much fear. And note that because you do not immediately commit your central pawns, you can often transpose if you wish to other semi-open defences, albeit with a knight on c6. For example, after 1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 an early ...g7-g6 is an unusual Modern Defence, while 1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 d5 leads to a risky line of the Scandinavian Defence (discussed in Kingpin magazine #28, and a favourite of the Russian IM Nikolai Vlassov); so there is plenty of room for experimentation.
1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 is these days the most common reply. Now 2...e5 looks best and transposes to orthodox openings (you will at least have side-stepped the King's Gambit). However, if you insist on avoiding the Ruy Lopez, and Giuoco Piano, etc., I suggest 2...d6 3.d4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bg4, usually followed by ...e6 and ...Be7. (Though be sure to avoid 4.c3 Nxe4?? 5.d5.) If at some stage White plays h2-h3 attacking your white-squared bishop, you should nearly always drop it back (...Bg4-h5); while if he plays the knight-pinning Bb5, you should nearly always reply ...a7-a6.
After 4...Bg4 White has a wide choice:
A) Several books offer Illescas Cordoba-Miles, Linares 1995, which continued 5.Be3, as showing White's best line. You could go 5...e6 6.h3 Bh5 7.d5 and now (instead of Miles's 7...Ne7) 7...exd5 8.exd5 Ne5. However, Steve Wike's idea is to depart with 5...d5!? 6.e5 Ne4, which should certainly surprise most opponents.
Instead of 5...e6, Black can try 5...e5, and now: 6.d5 Ne7, or 6.Bb5 Nd7 7.d5 Ncb8! (not 7...Ne7 8.Nxe5). White is better in these lines although, just like Black, he has to regroup to make progress.
B) 5.Bb5 looks dangerous, but you can play the straightforward 5...a6 6.Bxc6+ bxc6 7.h3 Bh5 with a compact position. Ligternik-Miles, Wijk aan Zee II 1984, finished 8.Qe2 e6 9.g4 Bg6 10.Bg5 Be7 11.0-0-0 h6 12.Bf4 Qb8 13.Kb1 Qb4 14.Bc1 Rb8 15.b3? Qxc3 16.Bd2 Nxe4 17.Be1 0-0 0-1.
C) 5.Be2 is much less threatening. 5...e6 6.Be3 Be7 7.0-0, and now GM John Nunn in Nunn's Chess Openings (p.123) assesses both 7...d5 and 7...0-0 as leading to equality. IM Zvonimir Mestrovic prefers 5...e5, and upon 6.d5 his QN heads for g6 via e7.
D) If 5.d5, you should calmly retreat the knight and take control of the now-open long black diagonal by preparing a kingside fianchetto.
Incidentally, if White plays an early h3 – 1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 d6 3.h3 – then IM Gary Lane suggests going into a Pirc Defence with 3...Nf6, and ...g6.
If 1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 or Bb5, you should reply with 3...Nf6.
1.e4 Nc6 2.Nc3 can be answered by 2...d6 3.d4 Nf6 with probable transpositions to the 2.Nf3 variations above. If White tries to vary, then play may go 4.f4 e5 5.d5 Bg4 (5.dxe5 is also answered by ...Bg4) 6.Be2 Bxe2 7.Ngxe2 Ne7 8.0-0 c6 9.fxe5 as in Julian Hodgson-Soszynski, Birmingham simul, Sep/1997, when 9...dxe5 would have been near-equal.
After 1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 d5, White has three principal options. (A fourth idea 3.Bb5 is harmless after 3...dxe4 4.d5 a6, while 4.Nc3 Bd7 5.Nxe4? Nxd4 wins a pawn.)
| A) 3.e5 f6 4.f4 (others: 4.Bd3!? g6; 4.Nf3 Bg4 or the wild ...g5!?; 4.exf6 exf6 when Black is tempi up on the French Exchange Variation) 4...Bf5 with ...e6 and ...Qd7 to follow. If 5.g4 then 5...Be4 6.Nf3 Nxd4!. Note that if White omits playing c2-c3, then in some cases you have the possibility of ...Nc6-b4 and then ...c7-c5. |
B) 3.Nc3 is or was supposed to be the critical move. 3...dxe4 (3...e6 is a rare line of the French Defence, and you could also consider 3...e5!?, or even 3...a6 4.exd5 Nb4 or 4.Nxd5 e6) 4.d5 Ne5 5.Bf4 (5.Qd4 Ng6 6.Qxe4 a6, or 6.Bb5+ Bd7 7.Nge2 Bxb5!?, or 5.f3 e6) 5...Ng6 6.Bg3 a6 intending ...f7-f5 or ...Ng8-h6. |
C) 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.Nf3 (4.Be3 e5! 5.dxe5 Qxd1+ 6.Kxd1 Nxe5 7.Nc3 Bd7 8.Ne2 Ng4 =+ R. Walker-Soszynski, B'ham League Div I, 1997-98; if 5.Ne2 Leonel Rosales suggests 5...Bg4 6.f3 Bxf3!) 4...e5 5.dxe5 Qxd1+ 6.Kxd1 Bc5 7.Ke1 Bf5 8.c3 0-0-0 9.Be2 f6 10.Bf4 fxe5 11.Nxe5 Nxe5 12.Bxe5 Nf6 13.Nd2 Bxf2+! winning, von Loewenborg-Nimzowitsch, Copenhagen 1924. |
After 1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 - as in Line C) above - White can also try a gambit idea of Frank Marshall's, 4.Nc3!? Qxd4 5.Qe2.
If White's stance looks threatening, then remember that once you weather the storm you will be a clear pawn up. You should continue 5...Bg4 6.f3 Bd7 or, better still, simply 5...e6 (in conjunction with the humble ...Qd8 if necessary).
Following 1.e4 Nc6 2.Bb5, Jeff Ashton has analysed 2...a6 3.Bxc6 dxc6 4.d4 g6 when he says that “Black has good pressure against the centre.”
Finally, 1.e4 Nc6 2.b4?! is the Wheeler Gambit, which according to Eric Schiller “puts White's game into a tailspin pretty quickly.” He says that Black has a good game after 2...Nxb4 3.c3 Nc6 4.d4 d5 (or ...d6 or ...e6) 5.e5 Bf5 6.Nf3 e6 7.Be2 Be7 8.0-0 Qd7.
That really is enough theory for the club player to be getting on with. As with any unfamiliar system, you ought to try it out in practice and learn from what happens rather than attempt to memorise longish variations that initially you won't really understand. If you repeatedly lose with it, then perhaps it isn't for you; but the defence “is sound and offers the maverick spirit a great deal of foreign territory to explore” (GM Jonathan Tisdall). So give it a try and go exploring. Good luck - and don't blame me!
GM Alexander Baburin: “When you answer 1.e4 with 1...Nc6, it may have psychological value, as for some opponents it might act like a red flag to a bull, causing them to lose objectivity.”
GM Tony Miles: “I like playing this [ie 1.e4 Nc6] in the first round of Swisses. Future opponents waste lots of time preparing for it!”
IM Andrew Martin: “Having played the move myself on and off for quite a while I can safely say that 1...Nc6 is not so bad.” “Robust, creative and different [...] 1...Nc6! is underrated and will score many points for you.”
Email me, Marek Soszynski, if you have any comments or further analysis.
For more information on Aaron Nimzowitsch himself, visit Wim Nijenhuis's website. However, for a critical view see What? No Nimzo?.
