Part III The London Nimzo-Indian and Queen's Indian Chapter 8 White Does Not Play c2-c4 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4 [diagram] In our repertoire against the London for King's Indian players, we witnessed a hard fight in the center and on both flanks, with the tactical element intensified and marches of pawns on both sides of the board. Here we are going to witness quite the opposite. The large majority of Nimzo/QI devotees opt for a positional game where the motto "Safety first" dominates the play, and in the London Variation against their system they could hardly be looking for anything else. We only had to choose which positional treatment would suit them best, and we think we have found it. 3.

b6! Our reasoning for choosing this move is fairly simple: Exchange the light-square bishops whenever you have the chance! Since White will most probably build a center with pawns on c3, d4 and e3 to support his enterprise in typical London fashion, exchanging those bishops can offer Black a long-term positional advantage, as the light squares around these pawns can become weak. Things of course are not that simple in practice, as in order to achieve the bishop exchange the second player will have to accept a slightly displaced knight on a6 and perhaps reduced control over e4. However, our research has indicated that it is possible to gradually overcome these disadvantages. So let us see how things can develop if Black adopts our chosen strategy for him, switching to "light-square mode": 4.e3 If White instead plays 4.c4, we have a transposition to the normal Nimzo theory. This could have been considered outside the scope of this book, but we nevertheless decided to provide readers with some ideas for the sake of completeness. 4.

c4 is examined in the chapter that follows this one. But now, let's look at other white alternatives, (1) 4.c3 and (2) 4.h3. (1) After 4.c3 White may be considering Nbd2 followed by e4, but we can apply similar strategies to those witnessed later in the main line: 4.Be7! Now we are ready to gain the bishop pair in case of 5.Nbd2.

The position is interesting, but not better for White: [diagram] (1a) After 5.Nbd2!? Nh5! 6.Bg3, we should not take the bishop immediately; better is 6.d6 7.e4 Bb7 8.Bd3 Nd7, keeping all options open. White now has to finally decide whether to castle long or short: [diagram] The engines prefer going long. Instead, 9.

a4 a6 10.0-0 c5 11.Qe2 0-0 is harmless for Black.