Nimzo-Indian Defence
Opening course for Black · ECO E20-E59
Pin the knight, take it, and play against the pawns it leaves behind.
The bishop comes to b4 and offers itself for White's knight. Take the trade and White is left with pawns on c3 and c4 that no pawn can defend, which is the target for the rest of the game. The Nimzo only appears when White plays 3.Nc3; against 3.Nf3 or 3.g3 you need a second defence, so treat this as one half of a repertoire.
- Chapters
- 4
- Lines
- 12
- Traps
- 1
- Sources
- 7
Nothing to review. Learn the next line.
Next: The Hübner blockade, against 4.e3.
Part of your daily work.
- Learn
- Walk the line with the coach, a note on the moves that need one.
- Recall
- Play it from memory. Learned lines come back on a schedule.
- Tempo
- The same line against the clock, for a score to beat.
- Off book
- The opponent leaves the book with a real move; Stockfish prices your answers.
Before the moves: the big ideas
Trade on c3, then play against c4
The point of ...Bb4 is the exchange, not the pin. Once White recaptures with the b-pawn, c3 and c4 stand on a file where no pawn can ever defend them. The standard attack is ...b6, ...Ba6 and ...Nc6-a5, three pieces aimed at c4, and White has one bishop to hold it with.
Close the centre and the knights win
In the Hübner setup Black follows the trade with ...d6 and ...e5 and locks the position. Bishops need open lines and the doubled c-pawns give White no pawn break on the queenside to open them, so the two knights end up the better minor pieces.
Your fourth move depends on White's
There is no single Black setup here. Against 4.e3, 4.Qc2 and 4.g3, castle or hit d4 with ...c5 and wait. Against 4.Bg5 and 4.Qb3, play ...c5 immediately: the bishop on g5 has nothing defending it, and the queen on b3 has stopped covering e4. Against 4.f3, answer in the centre with ...d5, because a pawn on f3 is not developing anything.
Forgetting the line is survivable
Most Nimzo positions are closed or half-closed, and the plans repeat: the c-file, the blockade, the ...e5 or ...c5 break. If you lose the thread of a variation, the general rules will usually still find you a reasonable move, which is not true of every defence to 1.d4.
The lines, chapter by chapter
In learning order. The coach serves review one line a day; open any line yourself when you want it now.
The Doubled c-Pawns
3 lines
These three lines all end with a White pawn on c3 and a White pawn on c4, and neither of them can ever be defended by another pawn. Everything Black does afterwards points at that.
When White Refuses the Doubled Pawns
4 lines
4.Qc2, 4.Nf3 and 5.Ne2 all say the same thing: you may have the exchange on c3, but the b-pawn will not recapture. Black's compensation is time, because those moves are slow.
The Bishop Comes to g5
2 lines
4.Bg5 pins the knight before White has developed anything else. It is the most provocative fourth move on the board, and both of these lines start from the same reply.
The Quiet Fourth Moves
3 lines
Three ways of not committing. Each one gives something up, and in each case the thing given up is concrete enough to aim at from move four.
Puzzles from this opening
The Nimzo-Indian Defence in brief
The Nimzo-Indian Defence is the chess opening that begins 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4, and it is filed under ECO E20-E59. This course teaches it from Black's side in 12 drills across 4 chapters, with a coach note on the moves that need one, every position checked with Stockfish at depth 20, and every plan credited to the author who wrote it down.
Lines you will drill
- The Hübner blockade against 4.e3
- Three pieces at c4 against 4.a3
- Answer f3 in the centre against 4.f3
- Hold e4 with the long bishop against 4.Qc2
- Meet 5.e4 with 5...d5 against 4.Qc2 O-O 5.e4
- Dissolve the centre against 4.Nf3
- Take the space back against 4.e3 O-O 5.Ne2
- Open the position against the loose bishop against 4.Bg5
- Punish the natural 5.e3 against 4.Bg5 c5 5.e3
- Take the c-pawn and keep it against 4.g3
- White cannot keep both bishops against 4.Bd2
- The queen on b3 does not cover e4 against 4.Qb3
Theory credited to
- Opening Repertoire: Nimzo and Bogo-IndianIM Christof Sielecki
- Opening Repertoire: Nimzo-Indian and Queen's Indian DefencesGM Nigel Davies
- Grandmaster Repertoire: The Nimzo-Indian DefenceGM Michael Roiz
- The Modern Nimzo-IndianGM Igor Lysyj
- Playing the Nimzo-IndianGM Renier Castellanos
- Wikipedia: Nimzo-Indian Defence
- lichess-org/chess-openings
2 branches are deliberately not drilled here, and the course records which and why rather than leaving the gap silent.
Questions
- What is the Nimzo-Indian Defence?
- The Nimzo-Indian Defence is the chess opening that begins 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4, filed under ECO E20-E59. Pin the knight, take it, and play against the pawns it leaves behind. The bishop comes to b4 and offers itself for White's knight.
- How do you learn the Nimzo-Indian Defence?
- This course splits it into 12 drills across 4 chapters. You play each line from Black's side against a coach note that explains the move, then the same lines come back on a spaced-repetition schedule until you can play them without prompting. Every position is verified with Stockfish at depth 20 before it ships.
- What does White play against the Nimzo-Indian Defence?
- The course answers every major reply: e3, Qc2, Nf3, a3, f3, Bg5, g3, Bd2. Each one has its own drill or a documented transposition into another, and the branches that are not drilled are listed with the reason.
- Where does the theory in this Nimzo-Indian Defence course come from?
- From published work by IM Christof Sielecki, GM Nigel Davies, GM Michael Roiz, GM Igor Lysyj and the reference sources credited on this page. The engine verifies the moves; the plans and assessments belong to the authors, and every drill records the page or section it came from.