Nimzo–Larsen Attack Chess Opening with FIDE CM Kingscrusher

Be able to play 1.b3 and win against anything the opponent does

What you'll learn
Ability to have a full repertoire with White based on 1.b3
Ability to create unusual problems for opponents in the Opening phase
Ability to understand key example games from key exponents including Larsen and Nimzovich
Ability to win more easily with the White pieces
Ability to have a surprise weapon to switch to when frustrated with more mainline openings
Abiity to get opponent's improving and losing time on the clock which is especially dangerous at faster time controls
Ability to take seriously an unusual system many opponent's have not taken seriously and not researched and therefore often improvise badly
Ability to have a cute little "r2-d2" robot in the form of the b2 bishop on your chessboard "spaceship" with the ability to strike things :)
Ability to have a fantastic weapon especially for faster time controls such as blitz because opponent's often forced to improvise on their own resources
Ability to set up opposite side castling scenarios with great examples from Bent Larsen and other key exponents
Ability to see as of time of course a weapon of super GM Richard Rapport - Rank #11 in the world - scores over 35% with 1.b3
Ability to see as of time of course a weapon of super GM Hikaru Nakamura - Rank #1 on FIDE Blitz Chess rankings scoring overall over 58% with White
Ability to research something he opponent cannot avoid. No wasted research time on something that might not turn up on the board
Ability to have a secret weapon with informational advantage that can get much bigger advantages often than "main lines"
Ability to set up a "goal hanging" resouces analogous to "Thorn pawn" which lurks around opponent's King if they castle Kingside
Ability to have very fast zaps in faster time controls based on the "Goal hanging" Bb2 resource
Ability to absorb positional patterns and themes from the example variations within games as well as the example games themselves
Ability to see how Magnus Carlsen - the current world chess champion has used 1.b3 crushingly against super grandmasters such as Wesley So
Ability to easily research often opposite side castling scenarios which can be huge fun to play from
Ability to learn a great day from classic Nimzovich games who used the 1. Nf3 then b3 move order in many games - one of the strongest players in the world
Ability to appreciate more the hard reality of pawns not being able to go backwards, and Nimzovich tickling pawns with knight moves based on this
Ability to appreciate a "Hypermodern" opening and its influence over the center through control rather than occupation
Ability to be inspired by many beautiful game examples especially on how the b2 bishop can be liberated, magnified, exploited & when departed give advantage
Ability to spice up the English opening with the inclusion of b3
Ability to see how multiple world champions have made use of b3 - directly or indirectly to create wonderful possibilities and game victories

Requirements
Know how the chess pieces move
Description
The Nimzo-Larsen attack is a very interesting novel first move 1. b3 - it can also be disguised with the move order 1. Nf3 d5 and then 2. b3.

When playing in such a novel way with the White pieces, the opponents are often forced to improvise and end up playing quite often controversial moves, creating downsides in their position which are readily exploitable.

The Nimzo-Larsen is named after two players. Nimzo is short for Aron Nimzowitsch- a major "Hypermodern" thinker and theoretician who created the icon book called "My System" which has been a major influence on future generations of players and is still considered a landmark work today. The "Larsen" part is named after the Danish grandmaster Bent Larsen who became one of the strongest grandmasters in Western Europe in the same era as Bobby Fischer. Larsen played board 1 in the 1970 USSR vs Rest of World match for the "Rest of World" team.

It is a flank opening move and prepares to fianchetto the Queen's bishop

By fianchettoing the bishop, there are many interesting perspectives gained.

From a positional perspective, the opening increases the grip on the dark squares. From an attacking perspective, it can sometimes assist attacks if the opponent castles on the Kingside.

Kingscrusher was made aware of this novel opening and how great it can be when United States Super-Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura used it with both White and Black to win the ICC Blitz Chess Open in 2011. Often because players are improvising against it, it is quite easy to gain a small to large advantage from the opening - larger than more mainstream "mainline" openings quite often.

The opening suffered a setback in a key game in the 1970 USSR vs Rest of World match but despite this, was used successfully in the same year by Bobby Fischer - who used it on five occasions, winning all five games. Fischer's opponents included notable grandmasters - GM Miroslav Filip, GM Henrique Mecking, GM Vladimir Tukmakov, and GM Ulf Andersson.

In modern chess, the opening is used at the Grandmaster level by exponents including Vladimir Bagirov, Baadur Jobava, Hikaru Nakamura, Richard Rapport, and Adhiban Baskaran. Many other IMs and GMs use it as a surprise weapon as part of their opening repertoires and find also great application at faster time controls where opponent's lose precious time on the clock trying to resolve unknown problems from the very start of the game which this surprise opening can set.

It is easy to find new exponent games with an online database because usually "Nimzo-Larsen attack" has its own special section name.

Who this course is for
Beginner to Intermediate players