Customer Reviews

Starting Out: The Nimzo-Indian (Starting Out - Everyman Chess)

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The Nimzo-Indian can be played in conservative solid fashion or in a more aggressive, unbalancing manner in which black plays for the win early in the middlegame. This book is designed to introduce the basic ideas, themes, and philosophy of the Nimzo. It is not loaded with the latest theory nor will it help titled players learn something they didn't already know.

However, this book really is a nice way to 'start out' in one of the best defenses against 1.d4 and is obviously critical for white players who play 1.d4/ 2.c4/ 3.Nc3. Chris Ward has a lifetime's experience with this opening and it shows. He is also a fairly entertaining writer, which is more than more chess authors can say for themselves.

Although, the book doesn't run 'deep' (nor does it claim to) it does present all the pertinent variations within the Nimzo so that you can choose which lines you want to play or research further.

This book will not be enough for strong club players to just hit the ground running. You will still (of course) need to check open resources like ECO, NCO, or the TWIC for modern theory of whichever lines strike your fancy. If you are already 1800+, then look elsewhere for you Nimzo knowledge. This book is really meant for lower rated players.

As a side note, the Sherbakov-Jakovenko game is not tactically flawed as a previous reviewer mentioned. If he had tried to play the lines with Fritz analysizing for more than a minute he would find that Grandmasters might know a bit more than some people give them credit for. The ideas involving a quick b4 in that game look winning for white at first but then the computer (and strong GM's like Onischuk and Gurevich)realize black gets the material back since the knight on a8 isn't going anywhere. Also, since black ends up with 2 queenside connected passers in the coming endgame. More than compensating and in fact, forcing play to take a perpetual to avoid getting burned. A very playable line for black.

I own many books from the ''Starting Out'' serie and they fit my needs. Being a class B player, I need a general and practical understanding of the different opening set ups I use. This serie is well written and the strategical and tactical concepts are very helpful. I use it as the basic of my futur work if I ever get strong enough to need more detailed informations.

I've been a chess coach for over 30 years and own most of the "Starting Out" series.This one on the Nimzo-Indian Defence by Chris Ward is written in an everyday language thats easy to understand, and has lots of diagrams as well as illustrative games to show you the plans and objectives of each main line with crystal clear clarity.By doing this you wont have to memorize countless seemingly meaningless variations as is the case with many other opening books.Their is no safer reply to 1.d4 than the Nimzo-Indian Defence,a favorite of many world champions, which has numerous different ways you can steer the game to suit your style of play.If you want to take your opponent out of his comfort zone, or are just looking for a solid way to get an exceelent game in the opening phase, this book is for you.For the novice and club player as well as the Master, author Chris Ward writes in a down to earth easy to understand style.176 pages long and an excellent investment.

Starting Out: The Nimzo-Indian by chess grandmaster Chris Ward is an extensive instructional manual describing the uses and advantages of the Nimzo-Indian and its variations in chess. The Nimzo-Indian tactic is an excellent defense against 1 d4, allowing Black the chance to play for a win at minimal risk. A very highly recommended addition to any personal chess library, Starting Out: The Nimzo-Indian uses carefully worded text and easy-to-follow diagrams to train both novice chess players and experienced long-term players alike in this practical, fascinating technique.

Like most chess books, you need to keep an eye out for errors. Chris Ward actually highlights a special warning - "don't trust the analysis in chess books, even this one!"

This warning is appropriate as there are some absolute pearlers in this book. The problem is that although you could expect mistakes in the middlegame analysis of an opening book, one would think mistakes would be kept to a minimum in the opening play.

Take a look for example at the game Sherbakov-Jakovenko on page 55. I've checked the move order independently and what I find is absolutely stunning - several serious errors in the opening dozen or so moves that Chris completely misses or worse, recommends not knowing that they comprise major blunders. I'm not talking deep positional errors - just silly patzer moves that fall to 1-2 move combinations. Having looked at the game quite closely, I was also stunned that 2 reasonably strong GMs could play repeatedly bad moves simultaneously so that they neutralised each other!

So if you are a beginning player or beginning practising the Nimzo Indian defence, make sure you have some trusty chess software to double check the analysis as you play through the games.

It's a shame Chris didn't take this simple step for us...

Setting this problem aside, the book is still valuable for beginning players and is simply set out with the basic ideas explained. For a better example of this type of book, try John Shaw's "Starting Out - Ruy Lopez"