Customer Reviews

Easy Guide to the Nimzo-Indian

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The nimzo indian is one of the most solid reply's to queen's pawn openings there is. John Emms takes us through all the different variations making decisions at key junctures about what to play as black. Below, the criticism of his choice of b6 versus the rubinstein variation is not quite correct. He does gloss over other options that black can play, but that is done only to save the reader time when they are studying. Emms did have reservations at first when he was thinking about recommending b6, but he says those disappeared when he realized that Viktor Korchnoi, Michael Adams, and Garry Kasparov play b6 against the rubinstein.

The strategy for both sides is explained thoroughly at the beginning of each chapter and the beginning of the book. There are also many examples from games at the beginning of each chapter. A very good effort from Emms.

Many GM:s have expressed that the author of 'Easy Guide to the Nimzo-Indian' John Emms is a real expert on the Nimzo. He presents a very sound repertoire for black.No strange lines. He prefers lines where Nimzowitsh Ideas are prefered. With other words..the lines where black controls the center with pieces rather than pawns. For Example the b6 variation after 0-0 in the capablancavariation. The 5..Ne4 in the Rubinstein fianchetto variation and the 4..b6 variation after 4.Nf3-the flexible variation.This will learn us to get the the real Nimzo-spirit/knowledge. He gives a good strategical introduction before the theoretical section of every variation.

The only drawback of the book as I view it is that it is too thin! But it follows the title 'Guide'.....so. I think the book is very good to build your nimzo-defence on. I hope that GM Emms as a very respected nimzo expert will wright more books on the nimzo. A book which also would include a lot of games which he annotates.

John Emms, co-winner of the 1997 British Championship plays the Nimzo-Indian himself and has attempted to write a 'road map' for us lesser fry. He only partly succeeded. The games are mostly modern - good enough. The diagrams are clear - OK. The notes are opinionated at times - no complaints here; I like a guy who can stand up for himself. Best of all he gives us a quiz at the back to see if we were paying attention - good stuff! But ... the quiz could have been longer; the recommended reply for Black vs. e3 is ... b6 only. There are many other valid tries but Emms glosses over them, and even admits that he had reservations about ... b6 while writing his book ,,,hmmmm.. And we are subjected to some tired replays of famous games including Botwinnik-Capablanca, AVRO '38 and Johner-Niemzowitsch, Dresden '26. Both fine games to be sure, but published many times before. All in all I think he dropped the ball ...