by Knut Neven

The Nimzo-Indian is not only one of the most solid openings against 1.d4, but it also suits the player with Black who is aiming from the start for the full point. In many treatments of the opening, White runs slight risks doubled pawns and an isolated queen pawn are typical. At the peak of world chess, there is thus a clear preference for the Classical System 4.Qc2 in which White usually retains the bishop pair and the pawn structure remains intact; however on some occasions it is necessary to make up for being behind in development.
 
The author, Knut Neven, has produced an easily comprehensible database with 24 texts and 478 selected and mainly annotated games. After an introduction and a history of the system and opening, there comes a specially interesting text about typical motifs which crop up in the Classical System: the advantage of the bishop pair, the placement of the minor pieces, recurring tactical motifs, key pawn structures and pressure against c4 are themes which the author explains and provides with links to sample games. Then there comes the opening theory of the Classical System in 18 chapters. And as well as that there is also a large reference database of nearly 23,000 games, of which approximately 1,000 are annotated. The CD is rounded off with a training database and an extensive opening tree, generated from all the games. All the data on the CD can be accessed with a reader based on ChessBase 9.0.
 
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Pentium, 32 MB RAM, Win98 SE, WinME, Win2000, WinXP
 
About the author
Knut Neven is the editor of the Canadian chess magazine En Passant. His principal playing activities are in the realm of correspondence chess, where he has already qualified three times for the final of the IECG World Championship. ChessBase has already published his works on the French Defence with 3.Nc3 and French Defence without Nc3 as well as on the Grünfeld Defence.