Nimzo Indian Defence – My Favourite game
Today we continue the series of Nimzo Indian where I will share some of my knowledge of the Nimzo Indian. In today’s article, I share with you a game which made a deep impact on me. It made me take up Nimzo Indian. The game was played by 11th world chess champion, Bobby Fischer. More importantly this game was played in a World championship match against Boris Spassky. Lets quickly move to the game. I will present moves and wait at critical positions. At the end of the article I have attached the full game.
- d4 – Nf6
- c4 – e6
- Nc3 – Bb4
- Nf3 – c5
- e3 – Nc6
- Bd3 – Bxc3
- bxc3 – d6
- e4 – e5
- d5 – Ne7
- Nf4 – h6
- f4 – ?
Try to think in this position and find black’s next move.
It is an interesting idea played by Bobby Fischer. He played Ng6!?
- … – Ng6!?
- Nxg6 – fxg6
- dxe5 – dxe5
Now we reach a position where Black has exchanged his dark Bishop and kept central pawns on dark squares. And continuing the game he uses Light square strategy. This is a common idea and you can use it in most of the e3 Nimzo Indians.
- Be3 – b6
- 0-0 – 0-0
- a4 – a5
Stopping a5 and tapping the a4 pawn which is now a long term weakness.
- Rb1 – Bd7
- Rb2 – Rb8
- Rbf2 – Qe7
- Bc2 –
With 20. … – g5 Black puts all his pawns on dark squares which neutralizes white’s dark Bishop.
21.Bd2 – Qe8
- Be1 – Qg6
- Qd3 –
23 … – Nf4
Once the Knight lands on f4 it is a good knight vs bad bishop game.
- Rxf8 – Rxf8
- Rcf8 – Kxf8
- Bd1 – Nf4
- Qc2 – Bxa4 ! 0-1.
If Qxa4 then Qxe4 attacks Be1 and threatens Qxg2#.
A smooth win by Bobby Fischer. This just made a huge impression on me and made me play the Nimzo Indian. This is by far my favourite opening till date. So you can try playing it yourself, and do give feedback. I will be presenting some interesting games in the next article.
