“French Grandmaster Christian Bauer is one of his country’s leading players. He is a former national champion and has represented France in numerous international team events. He has written many articles and books for several publishing houses: ‘Play 1…b6’ and ‘The Philidor Files’ for Everyman Chess and ‘Play the Scandinavian’ for Quality Chess. Many of his books have been translated into other languages. This is his fourth book and his second book for Thinkers Publishing after his master piece ‘Move Candidates’.”
From the publisher via Amazon we have this blurb:
“There is no doubt that the Nimzowitsch Defence is one of Black’s most inspiring openings after 1.e4. Black strives to unbalance the position by creating new problems for White from move two, giving himself every opportunity to fight for the initiative from the outset. It is no surprise that 1…Nc6 appeals to ambitious players who relish a complicated battle.
In this book, GM Christian Bauer explains how to use this powerful weapon drawing from his own successful experiences. He is not shy to show you the fundamental ideas, the traps, the pitfalls and naturally the move order subtleties which play such an important role in our modern game of chess. We are convinced this book will give you plenty of confidence and make your opponent think more than twice.”
End of blurb…
Christian Bauer is a strong French Grandmaster with a current FIDE rating of 2639 and has won the French Championship three times and has already authored several books. Previously we reviewed Candidate Moves : A Grandmaster’s Method.
In this 2020 book he takes a look at the rarely played but respectable Nimzowitsch Defence (1…Nc6, B00) as a reply to 1.e4.
For those who do not want to retain large quantities of opening theory this move seems to be attractive choice and will set most White players thinking at a very early stage and therefore be a wise ploy for shorter time control games.
[fen cal=Gb8c6] r1bqkbnr/pppppppp/2n5/8/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq – 0 1 [/fen]
Bauer’s first Megabase 2020 recorded outing for 1…Nc6 was in 1992 in the World Under-16 Championship and since then he has played it seventy-six times. His score with it is a mightily impressive 63.5% so we can be confident that he knows what he is writing about.
The earliest game recorded in Megabase 2020 was from an 1846 Bristol Chess Club encounter between John Withers and Elijah Williams which black won.
[pgn]
[Event “Bristol Chess Club Casual Games”]
[Site “Bristol”]
[Date “1846.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “Withers, John”]
[Black “Williams, Elijah”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “B00”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “70”]
[EventDate “1846.??.??”]
[EventType “game”]
[EventRounds “1”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2010”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “2010.11.25”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2010.11.25”]
[SourceQuality “1”]
{[%evp 0,65,5,23,23,20,87,73,92,88,80,73,63,68,76,60,42,33,40,31,26,3,3,-24,23,
27,81,44,23,26,15,0,5,12,27,29,95,92,186,-11,170,145,474,186,195,200,225,222,
217,220,265,121,371,372,403,379,386,-203,-168,-188,-188,-188,-188,-212,-197,
-332,-297,-29993]} 1. e4 Nc6 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Bg4 4. Be3 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. h3 Bh5
7. Bd3 Be7 8. a3 Bg6 9. Qe2 O-O 10. g4 d5 11. e5 Bxd3 12. Qxd3 Ne8 13. g5 g6
14. h4 Ng7 15. Nh2 Nf5 16. Ng4 Kg7 $2 17. Nf6 Rh8 18. h5 $18 h6 {[#]} 19. hxg6
(19. O-O-O) 19… fxg6 20. gxh6+ Nxh6 21. Rg1 Nf5 22. Ncxd5 Bxf6 23. Nxf6 Ncxd4
24. O-O-O c5 25. Qc4 b5 26. Qxc5 Rc8 27. Qxa7+ Rc7 $18 {White in winning easily
} 28. Bh6+ $4 {Ooops!} Kf7 $19 (28… Kxh6 29. Rh1+ Kg7 $19) 29. Qa6 Rxc2+ 30.
Kb1 Rxh6 31. Ne4 Qc7 32. Nd6+ Nxd6 33. exd6 {and White resigned in view of}
Rxb2+ $1 34. Kxb2 Qc2+ 35. Ka1 Nb3# 0-1
[/pgn]
In Chapter 1 the author examines unusual moves such as 2.f4 and 2. Bb5. 2.f4 is a move that King’s Gambit players might like to try but 2…d5 is a strong reply leaving black with easy equality from the outset. 2.Bb5 is also given but either 2…Nf6 or 2…d5 are replies often played by black and are both good. In many of these lines black fianchettos his dark squared bishop. In general, the author often gives more than one line for black.
Chapter 2 gives 2.Nc3 the move possibly preferred by lovers of the Vienna Game. This is the 3rd most commonly played move by White and Black may well consider 2…e5 having avoided the Ruy Lopez.
Recommended for Black is 2…Nf6 3.d4 and 3…d5 is deeply analysed however black can instead try 3…e5 transposing into a Four Knights Game.
One of the attractions of 1…Nc6 is that black can often go into open game (1.e4 e5) lines where he has avoided the Ruy Lopez.
The next part of the book moves on to the substantially more critical 2.d4 when black has two credible responses. The first is the thematic 2…e5 allowing White to answer with 3.Nf3 transposing into a Scotch Game. Black will therefore need to know the theory to that opening also.
More in line with achieving original Nimzowitsch style positions is 2…d5 which most engines give as the best move. Obviously, the assessment of an engine at move two can be taken with a large pinch of salt.
In my opinion if White replies 3.e5 the 3…Bf5 gives black an easy game.
[fen cal=Gc8f5] r2qkbnr/ppp1pppp/2n5/3pPb2/3P4/8/PPP2PPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq – 0 1 [/fen]
3.e4xd5 leads to Centre Counter type positions but White’s d-pawn can come under early attack as black intends to castle queenside.
The most popular move is 3.Nc3 when the main line is 3…d5xe4 4.d5 when the Breyer-like 4…Nb8 planning c6 or e6 is recommended.
[fen cal=Gc6b8] rnbqkbnr/ppp1pppp/8/3P4/4p3/2N5/PPP2PPP/R1BQKBNR w KQkq – 0 1 [/fen]
Christian also looks at 3…Nf6 when the main line is 4.e5 Nd7. The fact that White has played fifteen(!) different moves here shows that is it not clear what the “best” move is.
THE most popular reply to 1…Nc6 is by far 2.Nf3 when the Nimzowitsch move is 2…d6. Black often plays g6 and Bg7 in these lines with similar play to the Pirc Defence but having ruled out the dangerous Austrian attack option. Black can also try …Bg4 lines and these are also looked at in some detail. White can try c3 or Nc3 lines and must decide putting the light squared bishop on either e2 or b5.
In summary, if you are bored with opponents who hit you with loads of theory this may be the opening just for you and, reassuringly, it appears to be quite sound.
Finally, here is one of the author’s game with this defence:
[pgn]
[Event “Leon blitz op 33rd”]
[Site “chess.com INT”]
[Date “2020.07.14”]
[Round “6”]
[White “Kovalev, Vladislav”]
[Black “Bauer, Christian”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “B00”]
[WhiteElo “2648”]
[BlackElo “2623”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “78”]
[EventDate “2020.07.14”]
[EventType “swiss (blitz)”]
[EventRounds “10”]
[EventCountry “ESP”]
[SourceTitle “Mega2020 Update 40”]
[Source “Chessbase”]
[SourceDate “2020.07.24”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “2020.07.24”]
[SourceQuality “1”]
{[%evp 0,78,34,34,53,18,68,68,60,60,103,58,57,53,61,42,37,40,46,10,10,1,11,16,
-6,0,0,0,10,0,0,-1,30,28,24,12,34,-14,-11,-12,28,12,19,18,27,0,0,0,0,0,0,-89,0,
0,8,3,-17,-17,0,-135,-17,-20,-1,-58,-110,-287,-10,-17,-35,-120,-57,-214,-297,
-627,-638,-663,-801,-801,-383,-29999,-30000]} 1. e4 Nc6 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 Nf6 4.
Nc3 g6 5. h3 Bg7 6. Be3 a6 ({Relevant:} 6… O-O 7. Qd2 a6 8. d5 Na7 9. a4 c6
10. Be2 Bd7 11. O-O b5 12. dxc6 Bxc6 13. e5 b4 14. exf6 bxc3 15. fxe7 cxd2 16.
exd8=Q Rfxd8 17. Ra2 Be4 18. c3 Bd5 19. Ra3 a5 20. Nxd2 Rdb8 21. Bc4 Be6 22.
Bxe6 fxe6 23. Rb3 Rxb3 24. Nxb3 Nc6 25. Rd1 d5 26. Nd4 Nxd4 27. Bxd4 Rb8 28.
Bxg7 Kxg7 29. Rd2 Kf6 30. Kf1 Ke5 31. Ke2 g5 32. Kd3 Kd6 33. Kc2 e5 34. f3 h5
35. Rd1 Rf8 36. b4 {Nisipeanu,L (2667)-Maghsoodloo,P (2671) Malmo 2019 1/2-1/2}
) 7. g3 O-O 8. Bg2 e5 9. O-O exd4 10. Nxd4 Re8 11. Qd2 Ne5 12. b3 c5 13. Nde2
Bxh3 {[#]} 14. f3 $146 ({Predecessor:} 14. Rad1 Bxg2 15. Kxg2 Rc8 16. Bg5 Qa5
17. Rh1 h5 18. Qf4 Re6 19. Qh4 Ned7 20. Qf4 Nh7 21. Nd5 Nxg5 22. Qxg5 Rce8 23.
Nef4 Rxe4 24. g4 Qd8 25. Qxd8 Rxd8 26. gxh5 g5 27. h6 Bd4 28. Nh5 Kh7 29. Ng3
Re6 30. c3 Be5 31. Nf5 Bh8 32. c4 Nf6 33. Nc7 Re2 34. Rxd6 Rc8 35. Ng3 Rxa2 36.
Nd5 Nxd5 37. Rxd5 Bd4 38. Ne4 f6 39. Rd7+ Kg6 40. Rg7+ Kf5 41. Nd6+ Kg4 42. Rf1
Rh8 43. Nf7 Re8 {Klett,T-Pribyl,J (2405) Boeblingen 1995 1/2-1/2}) 14… Bxg2
15. Kxg2 d5 16. exd5 Rc8 17. Rad1 b5 18. Bg1 b4 19. Na4 Ned7 20. Rfe1 h5 21.
Nf4 h4 22. Rxe8+ Nxe8 23. Ne6 Qf6 24. Nexc5 h3+ 25. Kh2 Ne5 26. Qf4 Nxf3+ 27.
Kxh3 Nxg1+ 28. Rxg1 Qe7 29. Qe4 Qd8 30. Rd1 Nd6 31. Qf3 Qg5 32. Re1 Rd8 33. Kg2
Nf5 {[#]} 34. Re4 $2 Be5 (34… Nd4 $1) 35. Nd3 Bxg3 36. Rg4 Qd2+ 37. Kg1 Qh2+
38. Kf1 Rxd5 39. Qxd5 Ne3# 0-1
[/pgn]
Colin Lyne, Farnborough, Hampshire, 16th July, 2021
Book Details :
- Paperback : 264 pages
- Publisher: Thinkers Publishing; 1st edition (19 Nov. 2020)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 9492510960
- ISBN-13: 978-9492510969
- Product Dimensions: 17.15 x 1.27 x 22.86 cm
Official web site of Thinkers Publishing
