Nothing. White often plays 1.c4 to avoid the NID and thus choses the Mikenas. I might add, that 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.d4 Bb4 still may transpose to the NID.

Alias wrote on 11/05/07 at 17:56:20:


Yes, it's possible for White to play 1.c4 yet avoid the QGD; I was exaggerating.  My point however was, it's rather futile for Black to "play the Nimzo" and then accede to a QGD if 1.c4 is played.  One might as well play the QGD, period, since White can always come through his 1.c4 door and avoid the Nimzo.

Willempie wrote on 11/05/07 at 14:06:42:


4. f4 (played way back by Eliskases) has been claimed to lead to a clear advantage for White.  I might have thought that 4. g3 (with the idea of a Botvinnik set-up or perhaps a later d2-d4 in some cases) should be promising too, though I presume there could be some funky tries along the lines of 4...Bc5 5. Bg2 d6 6. Nge2 Ng4 7. 0-0 h5 (8. h3 h4).  Or has this all been covered in "Secrets of Opening Surprises"?    

But in the line 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. g3 Bb4 4. Bg2 0-0 5. e4, Black sometimes plays ...Nc6 and regroups with ...Bc5 (along with moves like ...0-0, ...d6 and ...a6), so maybe it's fine  for Black to play in that vein in the Mikenas after 3...e5 4. g3 (i.e. Black could be regaining his lost tempo, so to speak).

GMTonyKosten wrote on 11/05/07 at 11:14:51:


Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the feasibility of 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 for black depend as much on what one plays beside the Nimzo-Indian, i.e. one's main choice against 1.d4/2.c4/3.Nf3? If one has a Queen's Gambit available (semi-slav, ragozin, orthodox etc) then 3.Nf3 d5, If one has the symmetrical english ...e6 lines (and the Modern Benoni) then 3.Nf3 c5.

Perhaps 3.Nf3 Bb4 4.g4 (or Qb3, or Qc2) is mainly a concern for Bogo-Indian or Queen's Indian players?

I would add that I didn't have Tony's Dynamic English in mind in my earlier post - the repertoire he gives there starts with 1.c4 and 2.g3 so the Flohr-Mikenas doesn't feature at all!

I wonder what Craig Pritchett has in mind ... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Play-English-Complete-Opening-Repertoire/dp/1857445457/r...

The coverage of the Flohr-Mikenas on the main Chess Publishing site (the Flank Openings section) is by far the best to be found anywhere.  None of the recent publications on the English Opening do it justice.

I have played this with both White and Black and my feeling is that black is playing with fire in the 3...c5 lines (which is not to say he stands worse objectively, but over the board it is very tricky).  3...d5 is safer but much less likely to produce wins.  Incidentally, the modern trend in the line you give is to refrain from 7.d4 and first play Nf3, Bd3 0-0, Be4 and only then d4.

I was playing on the net one day when I met this system. 

1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6. As I am a nimzo player, I want to tranpose to nimzo indian. However, my opponent played 3.e4. I did not know how to play against this line during that game and lost terribly. 

I did some research and found out that the way to play seems to be 3...d5 4.e5 d4 5.exf6 dxc3 6.bxc3 Qxf6 7.d4. However, I dont seem to like this position. Also, a lot of the games I saw ended in draws. (I searched my chessbase database.)

Does anyone have a suggestion on what I should play? Thanks.