Nimzo–Larsen Attack Chess Opening with FIDE CM Kingscrusher
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
- Ability to get opponent's improvising 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 Star-Wars fan "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 or transpose into 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
- Ability to spice up or transpose into the Reti Opening 1. Nf3 with 1. b3 later - the Classical variation - avoiding 1.b3 e5 variations
- Ability to spice up or transpose into the Bird's Opening with 1. b3 later - and contribute more to dark square grip strategy
- Ability to spice up or transpose into the King's Indian Attack with Queenside bishop fianchetto later - double fianchetto helps control central squares
- Ability to spice up or transpose into 1.g3 - Benko's opening with Queenside bishop fianchetto later - double fianchetto situation helps control central squares
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
Instructor
![Tryfon Gavriel](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64"%3E%3C/svg%3E){kind=avatar}
- 4.7 Instructor Rating
- 1,530 Reviews
- 6,799 Students
- 22 Courses
Tryfon Gavriel, also known as "Kingscrusher" on the Internet. I am a FIDE Candidate Master (CM), British Regional Chess Master, and run a popular Youtube channel for many years with over 114k+ Subs as of 2021 and a Silver Button Award.
I have done many shows on commercial chess servers. I am also the Webmaster of the correspondence style chess server Chessworld which emphasizes game quality and research.
Playing experience
Over 35 years of playing activity both online and offline. Peak ICC blitz rating of 2625 (18-Jun-1999). Peak ICC 5 min auto-pairing of 2383 (29-Jun 2012). ECF Grading peak classical: 212 (A) ECF. Peak Rapid rating: 217 (C). Lichess marathon top 10 finishers in 3 marathons so far. In the other two, top 50 finishers. Won quite a few tournaments at lichess
One of my earliest Over-the-board achievements in Chess was winning the Lloyds Under 18 national UK tournament in 1989. My trophy was awarded to me by Grandmaster and Ph.D. Mathematician Dr John Nunn.
Teaching experience
I have done teaching in Schools and also have done teaching online with several Lichess students on a regular basis, and have a very good coaching rating at lichess.
Other experiences
Played twice in the main British Chess championship. Many of my Youtube viewers claim big rating increases after watching my videos.
Best skills
I particularly love chess tactics and combinations, and it is probably no accident that my "Complete Guide to Chess Tactics" has been a best-seller since near inception here at Udemy.
In general, I will try and give you greater enthusiasm for the game and in particular the dynamic aggressive tactical aspects of playing chess. My favorite heroes are Paul Morphy, Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, and Mikhail Tal. if you want to be a dynamic aggressive player, I may be able to encourage you and find you relevant resources on that path. The dynamic aggressive were particularly strong tactically and would often trade off pawn structure neatness and material to try and checkmate the opponent's kings. Checkmate does win the game :)
Chess Openings
In terms of concrete openings to make use of potentially teaching here at Udemy through courses, I like Solid openings on such as the London System. I also like provocative openings like the Knight's Tango systems to encourage weaknesses from opponents. I am also at faster time controls especially, particularly fond of aggressive openings and gambits. As an example, the Smith-Morra Gambit vs the Sicilian Defence, and other gambits can be used aggressively even with the black pieces such as the Albin Counter Gambit. Gambits vary of course in soundness and it is important to teach what "ticks many boxes" for use in various time controls. In the search for the ideal courses to provide you, I like to search within myself for my core strengths and passions within the passion of Chess.
I truly hope you enjoy my courses and they improve your chess and your enjoyment of chess generally - and life generally :)