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Openings named after Nimzowitsch

At a glance

Openings named after Nimzowitsch are above all the Nimzo-Indian Defense, the Nimzowitsch Defense and the Nimzowitsch–Larsen Attack. Most of these names were only given to them by later generations. Aaron Nimzowitsch played these openings himself and explained them with his own games. At the board they show his ideas: controlling the center from a distance and restraining a pawn center.

In short

Many openings bear the name of a player. In Nimzowitsch’s case, most of the names come from later chess writers. In his own index of openings in “Chess Praxis”, the best-known one today is still simply called “Indian”. Only the Nimzowitsch Defense is already listed there under his name.

In the Nimzo-Indian Defense the white pawns stand on d4 and c4, and the white knight goes to c3. Black has a knight on f6 and a pawn on e6 and brings the bishop to b4 against this knight. In Nimzowitsch’s games the bishop often takes the knight later, and White gets doubled pawns. A well-known example is his game against Johner.

In the Nimzowitsch Defense, White moves the king’s pawn two squares forward. Black replies at once with the queen’s knight to c6. Nimzowitsch often played this opening with Black, for example against Wendel. His index lists ten games with it.

In the Nimzowitsch–Larsen Attack, White moves the b-pawn one square forward and puts the bishop on b2. From there the bishop works on the center along the long diagonal. Nimzowitsch sometimes moved the b-pawn on the first move, sometimes after the knight to f3, for example against Rubinstein. The second part of the name stands for Bent Larsen, who is seen as one of his heirs.

Nimzowitsch called still other ways of playing his own. In the French Defense he revived the early advance of the white king’s pawn to e5, for example against Salwe. In the Sicilian Defense he called the black king’s knight to f6 on the second move his invention.

Summarized by the editors in their own words. This is not a quotation.

What Nimzowitsch found new about them

In an essay Nimzowitsch describes what mattered to him in his set-ups with Black. He did not move the queen’s pawn to the center in the first moves. He believed he was the first to do without center pawns entirely for the first eight to ten moves. This fits the ideas of the hypermodern school.

In his index he groups several such set-ups under the name “Indian”. The set-up with the bishop on b4 is only one of them. Today only this set-up bears the name Nimzo-Indian. His games with White and the early bishop on b2, on the other hand, he files under the Dutch Defense with colors reversed.

To play through

Four course games show the openings on the board. Against Johner, Nimzowitsch plays the Nimzo-Indian Defense; against Wendel, the Nimzowitsch Defense. Against Rubinstein he puts his bishop on b2 early. Against Salwe he plays the advance in the French Defense.

Lesson 20 begins with exactly this French pawn chain. Lesson 26 explains the doubled pawns that White often gets in Nimzowitsch’s Nimzo-Indian games.

Today’s view

The best-known of the three today is the Nimzo-Indian Defense. The names pay tribute to him; Nimzowitsch himself mostly classified his games differently. When you learn an opening, it is best to learn its ideas and not only its moves.

Where to find it in Nimzowitsch

  • Essays: Zur Frage der „Zukunftseröffnung“ original text not yet published

    Essay on the opening of the future: Nimzowitsch describes his set-ups without early center pawns and his pawn move to b3.

  • Chess Praxis: Register der Eröffnungen original text not yet published

    Nimzowitsch’s index of openings in “Chess Praxis”, with the groups Indian, Nimzowitsch and Dutch with colors reversed.

  • Chess Praxis: Partie 34 (original text)

    Johner – Nimzowitsch: Black puts the bishop on b4 against the knight on c3.

  • Chess Praxis: Partie 55 (original text)

    Wendel – Nimzowitsch: Black answers the king’s pawn at once with the knight to c6.

  • Chess Praxis: Partie 83 (original text)

    Nimzowitsch – Rubinstein: White begins with the knight to f3 and the pawn to b3.

  • My System: Nachtrag, 1. Die allgemeine Lage der Dinge vor 1911 original text not yet published

    A look back in which Nimzowitsch claims ways of playing in the French and the Sicilian Defense as his own.