Openings · B00

Nimzowitsch Defence

1…Nc6 — a knight standing in front of the pawn White would like to push, and a game nobody has prepared for.

1.e4 Nc6played as Black

The idea

The main line is 2.d4 d5, hitting the centre at once: after 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.d5 Ne5 the position is already unlike anything else, which is the practical point of the whole defence.

It is sound enough and it is rare, and rare is worth something. What it is not is a way to avoid work — the knight's early commitment has consequences, and knowing them is the price of the surprise.

Practise the line

You play Black; the other side answers on its own. Nothing here is saved or graded.

Your move 1 of 10/1

1.e4Nc6

White is answering…

Common mistakes

Three that come up again and again below master level. Each is ordinary opening theory — a named trap, or the error every coach corrects — not a statistic, and not drawn from anybody's games.

Retreating the knight

1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.d5 Nb8

The mistake: Answering 4.d5 by sending the knight home to save it.
Why it costs: Two of Black's four moves have been spent putting a piece back where it started, and White has a free pawn on d5, the centre and a lead in development. The knight was the whole opening.
Instead: 4…Ne5, and then …Ng6 when the queen comes to d4. The knight is meant to be kicked; the lines are about where it lands.

Blocking your own c-pawn

1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 e6 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.e5 Nd7 6.Be2 Be7

The mistake: Steering into a French-shaped position with …d5 and …e6 while the knight sits on c6.
Why it costs: In every structure of this kind the freeing move is …c5, and the knight is standing on the square the pawn needs to pass. Black ends up with a French Defence in which the one plan that makes the French work is unavailable.
Instead: The …dxe4 lines, where the knight has somewhere to go, or 2…e5, heading for open positions in which a knight on c6 is exactly where it belongs.

Transposing on White's terms

1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 e5 3.dxe5 Nxe5 4.Nf3 Nxf3+ 5.Qxf3

The mistake: Playing …e5 next, hoping for an Italian or a Spanish by transposition.
Why it costs: Transpositions run both ways, and it is White who chooses which one. Here the centre opens at once, the knight is traded after moving three times, and White's queen comes to f3 with everything developed and a move to spare.
Instead: 2…d5, the defence's own move. If open games are what you want, 1…e5 reaches them without giving White a choice first.

Try it on one of your own

The board above is for the line itself; this is for a game you played. Paste a game in this opening, or pull one from chess.com, and every move is graded against what the engine would have played. Open the board, read how the grading works, or go back to the other openings.