Dear Michael,

There has been some discussion of this in the thread "Playing the UD against the English" which may be of some interest to you, though I dare say it raises more questions than it provides answers.

Regards,
Hubert

As a Nimzo and Tango player, I’m looking for some advice relating to the possibilities after 1 c4 Nc6. What do people thing is the best source of info on these? To my shame, I don’t yet possess Christoph Wisnewski’s recent book, but that can only be a matter of time! I’m especially interested in more unusual (but sound) lines, and/or lines with 2 …Nf6 against 2 Nc3 (just ’cos the chances of a Tango are upped!).

A look at the games of Nimzo specialist Mestrovic reveals some interesting options here. He has often answered 2 Nc3 or 2 g3 with 2 …d6, meeting 2 Nc3 d6 3 g3 with either 3 …e5 or 3 …Bd7!?. In the first case he plays 4 Bg2 Be6!?, the so-called Troeger Defence which the old ChessPub ECO search tool (remember that?) gives under A21 though it’s normally classed as A25. This isn’t very well thought of, though after 5 d3 (5 d4 e5!?) Mestrovic has tried 5 …Qc8 as well as the standard 5 …Qd7. Has he some new ideas I wonder, or is the assessment unreliable, or is he just improvising?

The 3 …Bd7!? line has related ideas, in that 4 Bg2 can be met by 4 …Qc8 (A10), though Mestrovic has also played 4 …Nf6 quite a bit (the move orders vary), playing …Qc8 only after 5 Nf3 (alternatively 5 d4 e5!?, or 5 Rb1 g6!?). A quick bash with the silicon suggests this is at least playable and may be OK, but I can’t find any theory on it. (5 Nf3 Qc8 and 5 d4 e5 appear to be A16, and 5 Rb1 g6 A10.)

There are other less usual tries, of course. On 1 c4 Nc6 2 g3 there’s 2 …d5!? (also 2 …e6 3 Bg2 d5), while Mestrovic has even tried 2 …Ne5!? (and got away with it). Finally, 2 g3 d6 3 Nc3 g5!? has even been seen, once. I should say, I’m not unwilling to go in for standard …e5 lines if the other choices are inferior - I’m just interested in exploring all the options.