The Nimzo-Indian: Move by Move [Paperback]

The best book in the Move by Move series... I would assume. So far I have only read The Ruy Lopez: Move by Move by Neil McDonald but it seems that The Slav: Move by Move by Cyrus Lakdawala seems to be of equal and maybe slightly lesser quality compared McDonald's book. After going through the sample pages of The Slav: Move by Move I still feel that The Nimzo-Indian: Move by Move is and probably will be the best book in the Move by Move series.

This book is written by John Emms. No duh?! John Emms is the current chief adviser of Everyman Chess and has this unnatural ability to be able to crank out book after book. But are those books of high quality intended for their target audience? I personally think so. John Emms has written some great books in the past such as The Easy Guide to the Ruy Lopez, Easy Guide to the Nimzo-Indian, Play the Najdorf: Scheveningen Style, Play 1. e4 e5, his little snippet on the New Archangel on the theoretical tome on the Archangel, Play the Open Games as Black, The Survival Guide to Rook Endings and other great books written for Everyman's Starting Out series. But what makes these books that Emms has written in the past so great? Well, I personally believe it's a mixture of a couple reasons: 1. Emms has great work ethic. If he personally hasn't dabbled in the subject, he will compensate his lack of experience with very deep research. An example would be Emms' book on the Najdorf in which Emms has cited many works in his bibliography. 2. Even if Emms has experience in that subject... well, all the better: you will get deep research, great practical advice and insightful explanatory prose.

John Emms being the chief adviser of Everyman made me think that when the project for the Move by Move series was underway, John Emms was the only one out of the other writers for the series to even have any ideal vision for what the final product would even look like (assuming that it was probably his idea for creating the series). What I felt he did what the other two authors failed to do was mix explanatory prose with a comprehensible repertoire with two or even three options for the main lines. Of course it will usually be easier to provide a comprehensible repertoire for Black than with White which Neil McDonald did for the Ruy Lopez: Move by Move, which is almost equally as good.

As for the Nimzo-Indian credentials, well, that should be the easiest part. John Emms practices what he preaches. If you look in your database or look up "John M Emms" on chessgames.com you will find that he does play the Nimzo and you will easily notice that the Nimzo is his main response to 1. d4. He has also written The Easy Guide to the Nimzo-Indian and if you've read Play the Nimzo-Indian by Edward Dearing you will find that John Emms influenced Dearing's choice for opting for the Nimzo-Indian. Now I will move on to the meat of the book.

When I first received this book, the first things I did was read the sections on 4. Qc2 (Classical variation) and 4. e3 (Rubinstein). Much to my surprise not only did I come out with a better understanding but was also delighted by his choice of lines for those variations.

Against 4. Qc2 Emms recommends

1. d4 Nf6
2. c3 e6
3. Nc3 Bb4
4. Qc2 0-0
5. a3 Bxc3+
6. Qxc3 d5!?

This line has apparently been all the rage lately in elite GM level and is Kramnik's current primary choice against the Classical variation. Usually b6 is played here where Black is very solid. Emms covers 6. ... b6 in Easy Guide to the Nimzo-Indian. Against 6. ... b6 White usually plays 7. Bg5. Against 6. ... d5 I figured the acid test of that variation will be 7. Bg5. I quickly turned to the pages on 7. Bg5 and much to my surprise Emms gives the readers two options against this Bishop move. The first option is to play 7. ... c5 where Black sacrifices a pawn to seize the initiative and open the board up while White's development is slightly hindered. The second option which Emms believes to be sound and active (which I agree) is to play 7. ... dxc4 with the idea of transposing into 7. Nf3 dxc4 8. Qxc4 b6 9. Bg5 with White alternatives on the way to the transposition covered.

Against the Classical variation Emms also recommends 4. ... c5 5. dxc5 Bxc5 as an alternative line justifying that this line is more plan based compared to his main recommendation with 4. ... 0-0 and that you can easily get by memorizing very little in that line. Usually Black ends up adopting a Hedgehog formation. I haven't read that entire chapter yet but I might consider reading it and perhaps even adopting this recommendation as well.

Against the main line Rubinstein 4. e4 0-0 5. Bd3 d5 6. Nf3 c5 7. 0-0 Emms recommends 7. ... dxc4 8. Bxc4 Nbd7 9. Qe2 b6 taking play into the Parma variation and the fertile ground 7. ... Nc6 8. a3 Ba5!?. Against 5. Nge2 Emms recommends the Reshevsky variation.

While reading through the few chapters I decided to plow through I tried answering some of the questions Emms poses to his readers and despite the fact that many would assume that the Move by Move books are targeted towards club players of intermediate strength (which is me of course) many of the questions I ended up answering made me feel about how little I knew about the Nimzo. I never liked chess quizzes or exercises from other authors because they never seemed to be able to justify their answers using prose and analysis and at times their reasoning for such answers can be quite faulty. So far Emms and McDonald have made me enjoy doing chess exercises. Their answers are always engaging and they always tell you why. My favorite parts so far in The Nimzo-Indian: Move by Move have been the multiple choice exercises. In the book previews on Amazon go to pages 12-13. When I stumbled on to that exercise I guessed ... c5. Let's just say I was quite enlightened when Emms elaborated on why ... Qd7 was the right way to execute the plan for attacking the c4 pawn. Although that exercise isn't a multiple choice exercise, as you go through the book you will find that there will be some here and there to keep your noggin busy.

As for books to supplement this work... Well... the nice thing about the Nimzo-Indian is that you will never get bored of it and you will, like Emms, always learn something new. If you want to play more aggressive variations and/or explore fertile ground, I highly recommend Play the Nimzo-Indian by Edward Dearing. I also recommend Carsten Hansen's theoretical tome on the 4. e3 Nimzo if you want to shuffle up lines and incorporate lines such as the Hubner or the Karpov variation. Challenging the Nimzo by David Vigorito basically covers the 4. Qc2 variation for both colors which should be useful for any ambitious Nimzo player.

As for a companion with the Nimzo against moves like 3. Nf3 and 3. g3 I recommend The Queen's Indian by Yrjola and Tella if you're interested in playing the QID and would like to switch between many lines. I have also heard from many people that Play the QID by Andrew Greet is an excellent book as well. Declining the Queen's Gambit by John Cox looks good as well and also provides a line against the Catalan. The Gambit Guide to the Modern Benoni is a good book for those who're willing to work very hard seeing as the Modern Benoni is a headache of a complex to understand properly. If you know a lot of Catalan players having Play the Catalan by Nigel Davies could help you shuffle up lines against opposition.
If you wait until December New In Chess will release a theoretical tome on the Ragozin Defence and Chess Stars sometime in the near future will release a repertoire book on the Nimzo and a repertoire book on the Bogo-Indian.

My first exposure to the Nimzo Indian is the book, Opening for Black According to Karpov by Alexander Khalifman which covers Nimzo/QID (which should serve club players for a long time) and what I feel is an outdated line against the Catalan. If you get that book you have lines in the QID as well as the added benefit of incorporating 1. ... e5 Four Knights English and Symmetrical English in your repertoire as well as coverage against 1. d4 deviations.

A book I would love to see by John Emms in this series in the future would be "The New Archangel: Move by Move." Very little has been written on this opening with the exception of Shirov's dvd on the opening so far. I also feel that Emms would be the perfect person to write such a book because the New Archangel isn't as sharp has the Archangel proper which is also a little bit more theoretical at this point.

WuvMuffin has already written a very extensive review of this book. Let me just add that I very much like the two "move by move" books in the Everyman Series that I have read (actually skimmed through), both this one and Mr. Lakdawala's book on the Slav. I think that the question and answer approach to teaching chess openings is very effective (my first experience with this approach was Matthew Sadler's award-winning book "Queen's Gambit Declined", also an Everyman publication). But I want to point out that this book is written primarily as a repertoire book for black, with nothing on certain variations, such as 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 00 5. a3 Bc3 6. Qc3 b6 (the book examines only 6... d5 in this position). Since I am interested in this opening more from white's side than black's, I was a little disappointed in that aspect. Still, an excellent book, as long as you are looking for a book written primarily for players on the black side.

This book I feel is one of the best on this opening and well worth having in your chess library.