I play the Nimzowitsch Defense against e4 (1. e4 Nc6) And opponent plays 2. Nf3. Of course white is begging black to play 2...e5 and white will be in his familiar territory. But here I play 2...f5!? and chances are it will throw white off and white could make an error.
Some common lines go as follows:
- 3. exf5 d5 4. d5 Bxf5 5. Bg5 e6 6. Ne5 Ne7 7. Qh5+ g6 8. Qe2 Bb7 9. Bg5 Qd6 10. O-O O-O
- 3. e5 d6 4. exd6 cxd6 5. Be2 e5 6. O-O Nf6 7. d3 d5
There are many, many more lines, but these are the most commonly seen.
What do you guys think of this opening? I know it gets a lot of backlash, but some GMs have played this. I honestly feel it's a pretty underrated opening.
i have played the white side many times and i gotta say - it's trash, i scored almost 100% against similarly rated opposition. the lines you mention are fine enough for black, but that's not "best play".
here's "my" line - 1 e4 Nc6 2 Nf3 f5 3 exf5 d5 4 Bb5 Bxf5 5 Ne5 Qd6 6 d4 Nf6 7 O-O Nd7 8 Bxc6 bxc6 9 Bf4 and black has less than nothing. to misquote fischer, "of course black can always play differently, in which case he merely loses differently."
however, if it works against your opponents and you enjoy it, then by all means keep playing it.
it's an unfortunate fact of chess that, as you move up the rating ladder, the amount of "viable" openings goes down.. sad.
"some very strong player X has played dubious line Y" is just the exception that proves the rule.
The position after your line is considered the mainline and white typically does gain the advantage...but black isn't lost. I enjoy playing Nimzowitsch, but as I get higher up I'm not sure which opening to play against e4. I've tried Sicilian Najdorf but I get way too afraid of white's kingside attack and I feel black's queenside attack is too slow. I also have the Sniper in my repertoire and that is good but I haven't gotten that much practice with it because I've been using the Nimzowitsch. As for my other openings:
White: Queen's Gambit/Catalan
Anti-d4: Nimzo/Queen's Indian
Anti-c4: Reverse Grand Prix
Anti-Nf3/f4: King's Indian
well yeah, black "isn't lost" alright, but that's hardly a reasonable standard.
clearly black is way behind in development (a long way from castling) and must tread carefully to avoid disaster (like 9..e6?? 10 g4!), in which case he still just has a worse position.
actually, it pains me to say these things. obscure gambits (blackmar-diemer, latvian, tennison, colorado, etc..) were my old love, but as i moved up the ranks they just didn't "work" anymore.
what i believe in is "whatever works, works", so if it works for you, then great!
i was never a fan of super-mainlines but i think it's important to at least honestly reevaluate your opening performance every once in a while, and look for that sweet spot of soundness and obscurity that's appropriate against your opposition.
Since you're playing the Nimzo and Queen's Indian Defences, you might be interested in a tense positional opening against e4, involving similar themes.
1) The Paulsen/Kan/Taimanov Sicilian features a queenside fianchetto just like the Queen's Indian, which often involves the c5 push and the cxd4 exchange as well.
2) The French Winawer features a Bb4 pin and play on a color complex after the exchange Bxc3, in a way that is comparable with the Nimzo Indian (even though you play for the dark squares in the Nimzo and the light squares in the Winawer). There is also an element of blockade in this kind of position.
Of course the specific lines are different. There is no direct similarity as between the Panov Caro-Kann and some QGA or Semi-Tarrasch lines where you reach the actual same positions with an isolated queen's pawn. My point is that you might develop related skills against 1.e4 and 1.d4.
Another solution would be to play the Pirc against 1.e4 as you play the King's Indian against 1.Nf3, but honestly this latter choice looks strange. The Nimzo/Queen's Indian is just as valid against 1.Nf3 as it is against 1.d4, and if White eschews the d4 push, you get a Nimzo English.
By the way, it would be interesting to adopt the same Nimzo English lines against 1.c4, or something with e6 and c5 (e.g. the Keres-Parma line) if White gains time by omitting Nf3. Players who adopt 1.c4 certainly prepare for the Reverse Grand Prix (and enjoy it, otherwise they would play something else), but statistically they play less strongly if Black doesn't react aggressively.
Against 1.f4, you should definitely reverse your favorite Catalan setup and play a reversed Dutch, which is less powerful for White that the Dutch itself is for Black (a famous quote by the Dutch specialist Malaniuk : "That extra move's gonna hurt me").
To sum up, a strict answer for your original question is : "play another kind of Sicilian with 2...e6 instead of the Najdorf". But you could consider your repertoire as a whole and change accordingly what you play against flank openings to take advantage of your skills learned with the Catalan, Queen's and Nimzo Indians.
@Rise's line from #2 can be further improved with 8.Bf4. I think it is possible to prove a win for white in this position.
Uhm, yeah. I thought it is refuted, sure. I played the standard line like Rise and scored well.
But let me tell you secret:
1. e4 Nc6 2. Nf3 f5 3. exf5 d5 4. Bb5 Bxf5 5. d4 e6 6. Ne5 Nge7!
isn't that clear at all and White doesn't score really well.
If I were Black I would jump in here (6. ... Nge7!). As White, I am not fully content with either 7.Bg5 and 7.Qh5.
@Sarg0n think before you post.
@Rise plays 5.Ne5, not 5.d4. Against this move order your idea is not possible.
Oh, I overlooked that little move swap (d4&Ne5) that when reading the posts. Maybe that's a solution for me as well because I always played the direct d4 which gave me no advantage. Thanks for the hint!
The whole line makes me think of 1 e4 f5?! with only the moves Nf3 and Nc6 added. If you want to play ...f5, then 1 e4 Nc6 2 Nf3 e5 3 Bb5 f5 is more solid, however 3 Bc4 f5?! is questionable again. I also consider 1 e4 Nc6 2 Nf3 d5 better.
