Lombardy's Nimble Nimzo Move Order
William Lombardy was born December 4, 1937. He won the New York State Championship in 1954. He won the Canadian Open in 1956. Lombardy became the first American to win the World Junior Championship in 1957. That event held in Toronto, meant the under 20 championship. Lombardy's score was the unique 11-0. He drew a two game match with the world champion, Mikhail Botvinnik. He played successfully numerous times on the US World Student and Olympiad teams. Lombardy was also the second of Bobby Fischer when Fischer defeated Boris Spassky in 1972 to become world champion. The following game is from the World Junior Championship of 1957. Lombardy, playing the black pieces, used the Nimzo Indian Defense. He believes that Nimzowitsch was correct about the idea of Bxc3+ and Ne4. Lombardy believes that the bishop should be given up before White can play e3 and Nge2, which allows White to answer Bxc3+ with Nxc3. In this game there is a move order dance. 4...Nc6 is classified in E33 and often leads to the Zürich or Milner-Barry Variation. The way Lombardy handled it, there was a transposition to a line classified in E37. There the move order is usually 4...d5 with 7...Nc6 later. Then White has a choice of 8.Nf3 or 8.e3. In this game, White had the same choice on move 5. By playing 5.Nf3 and 6.a3, White could not play e3 until move 9. Lombardy succeeded in getting in e5 without playing moves that often (but not always) prepare it in E33, such as d6 and Re8 or Qe7. The move order selected by each player changes what responses are made. Transpositions are part of a very important attribute necessary for playing chess, flexibility.
