Starting Out Nimzo-Indian Defense by GM Ben Finegold 28 Oct 2024 Chessable

Your Intro to the Fightingest Opening Against 1.d4

There’s no reason to be afraid of 1.d4 if you’re armed with GM Ben Finegold’s Starting Out: Nimzo-Indian Defense. The Nimzo-Indian remains popular at the top levels – but it’s a logical opening based on strong principles, so it’s the perfect introduction to openings for beginners. You’ll be well armed against White’s most frequently played 1.d4 systems.

This course draws on GM Finegold’s 40 years of experience of playing the opening – even as a child, he was drawn to the great attacking chances that Black can get in practical games.

Against most of White’s attempts, you’ll be playing a setup based around the move …b6. Your bishop will develop to b7, supporting the fight for the e4-square.

Both bishops will work together to fight for the center

Your optimal setup will often involve dropping your knight on e4, and then supporting it with f5 – which gives you excellent chances to attack the white king.

It’s very hard for White to dislodge the knight from e4

The great thing about the Nimzo-Indian is you won’t have to take crazy risks for chances to attack. Your king will be ready to castle early, and will often be safer than your opponent’s king, giving you the peace of mind to focus on grabbing the initiative.

GM Finegold goes into great detail explaining the plans, ideas and strategies needed to succeed with this opening. Each white response is dealt with in turn, making sure you don’t get caught by surprise at the board.

And the opening remains popular at the highest levels, with model games featuring Magnus Carlsen’s victory against Wesley So, among other top games.

Carlsen played a model Nimzo-Indian game here, which is why it ended up in the Model Games chapter

With just 11 key variations to memorize in the Quickstarter Guide, you could add the Nimzo-Indian to your repertoire today and comfortably play it in serious games tomorrow – and with only 80 trainable variations to learn, this is a course that you can fully master without getting lost in mountains of opening theory.

GM Ben Finegold is a popular streamer who creates fun and engaging content for beginners and club players. But don’t let his fun personality fool you – he’s a mean chess player with a peak rating of 2563. He has also worked for Hikaru Nakamura as a second, demonstrating his depth of theoretical knowledge.