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Nimzo-Larsen Attack Reviewed by ICCF-IM Keith Hayward
First Impression: This book follows the classic Everyman style of presenting complete games with detailed notes. The book weighs in with 69 illustrative games, which is a rather common amount for an Everyman book, but the book is obviously thicker than others, with 192 pages, compared to a more typical count of 150 pages. This extra page count is ALL analysis! Publishing Quality: The printing quality is excellent, text is easy to read, and the diagrams crisp. Another aspect of Everyman books I like is that book can be opened to certain point (near the middle) and the binding will give such that the book will remain open and flat. A nice feature when one is playing through games. Subject Coverage: The book is broken down into three sections: Part 1 is the Larsen’s Opening (1 b3 e5), Part 2 is a combination of the Larsen’s Opening (1 b3 d5) and the Nimzowitsch Opening (1 Nf3 d5 2 b3), and Part 3 is miscellaneous responses from Black (early ...g6 and ...c5). I have an old (1972) Larsen’s Opening book by Soltis (Chess Digest), but otherwise I do not recall seeing these two openings covered properly. As a beginner I played the Larsen’s Opening due to the following trap: 1 b3 e5 2 Bb2 Nc6 3 e3 d5 4 Bb5 Bd6 5 f4 f6 6 fxe5 fxe5 7 Nf3 Qe7 8 Nxe5 Bxe5 9 Bxc6+ bxc6 10 Qh5+ winning a pawn (not mentioned in Soltis’ book). However, Jacobs & Tait show 8 Nxe5 is in fact a blunder! After 8...Bxe5 9 Bxc6+
9...Kd8!! is a brilliant response winning for Black. Their referenced game continues 10 d4 Bxh2 11 Qf3 Nf6 12 Rxh2 Bg4 13 Ba3 Qe6 14 Bxd5 Nxd5 15 Qf2 Nxe3 16 Kd2 Re8 17 Bc3 Qg6 18 Rc1 Qg5 19 Qh4 Nc4+ White resigned in Piastowski – Herschell, corr East German Championship 1985. The authors include the pretty 20 Kd3 Be2+ 21 Nxe2 Re3+ 22 Kxc4 b5+ 23 Kb4 a5 mate. Readers should not lose faith in the opening with this example; the authors show 6 Qh5+ is one improvement for White. It might be my own ignorance, but I do not recall seeing any opening book giving the Nimzowitsch Opening coverage like this book does. Many opening reference manuals (like MCO14) will show the main line, 1 Nf3 d5 2 b3 c5 3 e3 Nc3 4 Bb2 Nf6 5 Bb5 etc., but fail to give White players ideas on how to play against avoidance lines, like 3...Nf6, where White’s plans to play Bb5 become clouded. I can happily report that the authors have taken this option as well as others in to account. The coverage is impressive. The authors also show plans for White with c4 involved. Author’s Knowledge: I am not familiar with IM Byron Jacobs, but I have played the other author, Jonathan Tait, in a correspondence game: Keith Hayward (2290) –
Jonathan Tait (2408) [A80]
A quick examination of this game shows Black’s approach is not that far removed from ideas utilized in Larsen’s Opening. I like it when an author has first-hand experience with the subject material. The book’s Introduction does not give us any information on the roles of each author. Several of Jonathan’s games are referenced, so I suspect Jonathan was the lead in the book’s creation. The analysis certainly looks like the efforts of correspondence player, detailed and thorough. There might be some of Byron’s games within the book, but I missed them. Certainly Byron’s role had to be more than “commissioning editor” with the amount of insightful material this book contains. Informative: The book has a fair amount of narrative, but it definitely leans towards game references. Lots of game references! The bibliography is large; it seems the authors were determined to find and present every game available with the Nimzowitsch and Larsen Openings. In the Introduction the authors are rather frank with the following acknowledgment:
Such a statement could turn a player off to playing the Nimzo-Larsen. However, the authors also state:
That pretty much sums up what one can expect with the Nimzo-Larsen. The book certainly delivers on helping a player learn and be prepared to play the Nimzo-Larsen middlegame with a large amount of game references and ideas. Many lines of Nimzo-Larsen are not forcing in nature, but are based more on long-term positional and strategic play. New Ideas: With the Nimzo-Larsen Opening being less popular, general opening reference manuals do not give the opening complete coverage. On this level the Nimzo-Larsen Attack book is full of new ideas. The book is filling a void. The Nimzo-Larsen can also transpose to other openings, for example, Chapter 5 – Reversed Queen’s Indian and Game 59 presents opening and middlegame ideas that should be helpful to Colle-Zukertort players. I should also mention that the Nimzo-Larsen could transpose to the Bird’s Opening (with b3). I found the analysis and game references on 1 Nf3 d5 2 b3 Bg4!? most informative. I like to utilize an early ...Bg4 against several openings: Classical Colle, KIA, and Bird’s Openings. I can now add Nimzowitsch’s Opening to that list. Accuracy: The authors are blunt about showing many lines being theoretically even with best play; consequently one has to think the authors were objective in their efforts. I found no mistakes in analysis, and their appraisals seemed to be consistent and accurate. There are a fair amount of game references that show move options where White did poorly. The coverage does not seem biased towards White on any level.
Overall
Appraisal: The Nimzo-Larsen has been sadly neglected by opening theory. This book
will certainly fill this void. I think the authors have done an
excellent job of uncovering ideas for both White and Black. I can
recommend this book for players looking to play either side of the Nimzo-Larsen
Opening.
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