Forums

Nimzo partner openings

Sort:
jmpchess12

The Nimzo-Indian is an incredibly popular opening, considered by many to be one of black's strongest replies to 1.d4. However, it has a drawback in that it can be side-stepped with 3.Nf3, and black has to go into a partner opening. For me personally I've played the Nimzo steadily for nearly a year now, but have struggled to find a partner opening I like. In this thread I'm hoping to compile a list of Nimzo partners and the reasons people play them with the idea of settling on something that suits me. So far this is what I have for reasonable Nimzo partners. 

 

1. Ragozin

2. Semi-Tarrasch

3. Queen's Indian Defense

4. Queen's gambit declined traditional

5. Semi-Slav

6. Modern Benoni

7. Bogo-Indian (added, suggested by Lakersnephew) 

Laskersnephew
3…Bb4+, the Bogo-Indian, is a very solid choice.
jmpchess12

BTW if people could offer up a testimonial as to why they like their chosen opening that would be helpful. For example I like the Nimzo because the pin on the knight gives good center control while maintaining flexibility with the pawns and in many lines I get to damage white's Queen-side pawn structure for a long term imbalance I can exploit. 

Chuck639

I like the Nimzo because I get to develop and castle early.

jmpchess12

As nice as this nimzo appreciation is, I was hoping people would extoll the virtues of their partner openings, per the intent of the thread. 

llama36
jmpchess12 wrote:

I like the Nimzo because the pin on the knight gives good center control while maintaining flexibility with the pawns and in many lines I get to damage white's Queen-side pawn structure for a long term imbalance I can exploit. 

That's all well and good, but I was hoping you would extoll the virtues of you partner opening, per the intent of the thread.

jmpchess12
nMsALpg wrote:
jmpchess12 wrote:

I like the Nimzo because the pin on the knight gives good center control while maintaining flexibility with the pawns and in many lines I get to damage white's Queen-side pawn structure for a long term imbalance I can exploit. 

That's all well and good, but I was hoping you would extoll the virtues of you partner opening, per the intent of the thread.

 

If I was happy with what I play, I wouldn't have made the thread. Mostly I try to play the Ragozin, but find its easy for me to make a few bad moves and get blown off the board. 

Nerwal

Through the years I have tried the Blumenfeld gambit, the Bogo-Indian with 4. Bd2 c5, the Modern Benoni, and lately the Ragozin.

I like the Ragozin the better although some positions can be a bit dry; it is solid and you get the good Nimzo development.

The Blumenfeld was weird and overall hard to play; the Modern Benoni was a substantial improvement over it because the manoeuvers are very thematic and Benoni structures happen all the time if you also play 1. d4 as White so you gain valuable experience anyway; but there are a lot of different systems for White to play and overall the lines where you get clear equality almost do not exist (unless White goes wrong of course), so basically you need a lot of energy to constantly find the best moves to keep the position alive, which is not what you really want from an opening (normally opening preparation should ease your task, not create more problems to solve). On top of that you have to deal with 3. Nf3 c5 4. g3 and 4. Nc3 which are completely different.

The Bogo-Indian was the opposite, solid but essentially prospectless, if you want to play this kind of game why not Queen's Indian or QGD which are more reliable. To make things worse, I started having problems in lines like 4. Bd2 c5 5. Bxb4 cxb4 6. a3 (if White is effortlessly a solid +/= at move 6 already why are we playing this), and back then the sharp line 4. Nbd2 0-0 did not quite exist - you still need good preparation to play like this anyway.

jmpchess12

I've settled for the time being on the semi-tarrasch. The mass simplification mainline seems to my style. Queenside majority against center pawns imbalance. Don't know too much about the sidelines, but c5 just feels like a move that is almost always good.  

I've come to a realization that having a partner opening where I push d5 is pretty useful to deal with move order tricks. 

MadnessAboveAll
jmpchess12 wrote:

I've settled for the time being on the semi-tarrasch. The mass simplification mainline seems to my style. Queenside majority against center pawns imbalance. Don't know too much about the sidelines, but c5 just feels like a move that is almost always good.

I've come to a realization that having a partner opening where I push d5 is pretty useful to deal with move order tricks.

I'm a bit late but what did you end up choosing. I need it for my own repertoire