From: mzabel@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Mark A Zabel)
Subject: Nimzoindian Replies and Note to Peter B.
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 17:38:10 GMT

     I just wanted to say thanks to those who took the
time to write me about the Nimzo - namely Bruce, Howard,
and Yuri.  Your comments were quite helpful to me.
I've been getting good positions with it, but so far
I've only been able to use it in speed games.

     The note to Peter B. refers to analysis of F-SII
game 2.  I'm working on the endgame analysis of that
again, and will post it soon.  I fully expect holes to
be shot into my analysis, but then that's the point of
posting it!  I hope others found this endgame as
interesting as I did.

     Finally, to break up the monotony of this post I'd
like to present a game from a book which has become one
of my all-time favorites; 'Chess Secrets I Learned From
the Masters' by Edward Lasker.  Appropriately, it's a
Nimzo.  Here follows Lasker's comments and notes
(though I've changed the notation to algebraic).

"The Marshall Club Championship gave me a last opportunity
of playing a serious game with Frank Marshall.  Although
almost twenty years had passed since we played our match
for the U.S. championship, a certain comptetive spirit had
survived which made every game we played,so to speak, a
continuation of our match.  I had observed that Marshall
was playing the Nimzovitch Defense against the Queen's
Gambit quite frequently, and I had prepared a method of
development which seemed to me to give White lasting
pressure on Black's center Pawn, similar to Rubinstein's
Fianchetto line:

White: Ed Lasker
Black: Fr Marshall

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.g3 0-0 5.Bg2 d5 6.cd ed
7.Bg5 c5
     My Bishop move had attacked the Queen's Pawn. Marshall's
     reply indirectly defended it, because after 8.Bxf6 Qxf6
     9.Bxd5? my Queen's Pawn would be loose.
8.a3 Bxc3+ 9.bxc3 cd 10.cd Nc6
     Again defending the Queen's Pawn by counter-attacking
     my own.
11.Bxf6 Qxf6 12.e3 Re8!
     For the third time Marshall defends his center Pawn
     indirectly by a developing move.
13.Ne2 Bg4 14.0-0
     An interesting continuation; perhaps more in the spirit of
     the strategy I had pursued so far , would have been 14.Ra2,
     again threatening 15.Bxd5.  If then Bf3, I could have castled,
     with the threat of Bxf3 and Nf4, whereupon the weakness of Black's
     center Pawn might have become a serious problem.
          However, I felt it was worth changing my strategy and let
     Marshall rid himself of his weak Pawn at the expense of an
     ending in which I would play with a well placed Bishop against
     the Knight.
14....Bxe2 15.Qxe2 Nxd4 16.Qd1 Nc6 17.Qxd5 Rad8 18.Qb5 Re7
19.Rac1 Rc7 20.Rc4 g6 21.Bd5!
     Shutting Black's Rook off from my second rank, investing the
     King's Bishop's Pawn, and comtemplating the sacrifice of the
     Queen's Rook's Pawn with an attendant surprise combination.
21....Qd6 22.Rd1 Qxa3
     Safer would have been Qe7, and had he suspected the sequel,
     Marshall would probably have chosen that move, although
     23.Qb3 Rcd7 24.Rf4 would have given me a strong initiative.
23.Rxc6!! Rxd5
     If instead, bxc6, I would have secured an advantage with
     24.Bxf7+ Kxf7 25.Qc4+ Ke8 26.Qg8+ etc, or 25....Ke7
     26.Qh4+, or 25....Rd5 26.Rxd5 etc.
24.Rd1xd5 Qa1+
     Marshall interposed this move in order to guard himself
     against a Queen check in the long diagonal after I force his
     King to g7 with Rd8+.
          Against the immediate Rxc6 I had prepared the following
     beautiful finish:
     25.Qxb7 Qa1+ 26.Kg2 Rc1 27.Rd8+ Kg7 28.Qb8 Rg1+ 29.Kh3 Qf1+
     30.Kh4 Qc4+ 31.f4 Qc5 32.g4 f6 33.Rc8! Rb1 34.Rc7+ Kh6
     35.Qf8+!! Qxf8 36.g5+ fxg5+ 37.fxg5 checkmate.  But such
     things never actually happen in a game.
25.Kg2 Rxc6 26.Rd8+ Kg7 27.Qb4!
     The main point of the combination.  The threat is Qf8+ and
     then Qh8+ winning Black's Queen.  Marshall places the Queen
     on a protected square, at the same timekeeping the long
     diagonal guarded against a check with my Queen, but there is
     another, final fine point which he had not taken into
     consideration.
27....Qc3 28.Qf8+ Kf6 29.Rd6+!! Kg5
     If Rxd6, of course, the Queen is lost.  But now follows
     mate in five moves:
30.h4+ Kh5 31.Rd5+ f5 32.Rxf5+ gxf5 33.Qxf5+ Kh6
34.Qg5 checkmate!"

     A really nice game!  I especially like the note after
Black's 24th move.  To be honest, though, I don't exactly
think that this proves the fianchetto line is best against
the Nimzo.  Maybe Kasparov thinks so!

-Mark
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