4.f3 vs. the Nimzo-Indian!
Do you find it hard to prove an advantage against the Nimzo-Indian, or even set any problems for the opponent?
Inspired by both Caruana's recent win in the 2020 FIDE Candidates against Alekseenko, and Anand's reliance on 4.f3 (with the idea of taking the full center with e2-e4) in World Championship matches, I analyzed this variation recently for my private chess group, and have found that White always gets an interesting position, with real chances to get an advantage if Black does not play precisely.
You can find a greatly summarised version of my analyses in the image below:
IM Jeremy Silman already explained the ideas of 4.f3 in some depth in this Chess.com article.
That article was written way back in mid-2014, and of course, in such a sharp line, it's important to be familiar with the recent games and up-to-date with key developments - at least, if you have a dream of becoming a titled player one day.
That's why I am providing detailed analysis of different openings in my private Facebook group so that you can save a lot of time on this phase of the game, by learning from my analyses, and instead use that time on other things - like discussing chess with other chess improvers, solving puzzles and asking strong chess players your chess questions! (All of which you can do in my group).
In the meantime, let me share with you another shortcut, that can help you to play an opening variation successfully:
Find an expert in that opening and follow their games!
Personally, I found it a bit hard to get my head around the 4.f3 variation for White at first. The play is quite sharp and seemingly unclear at first sight, and there are a lot of variations that Black can play in response (as you saw in the screenshot above).
That may explain why this variation has been recommended in many books - from Yuri Yakovich's old 'Play the 4.f3 Nimzo-Indian', to Lakdawala's recent 'Opening Repertoire: 1.d4 with 2.c4' and Moskalenko's 'An Attacking Repertoire for White with 1.d4'.
However, once I closely studied 4.f3 expert Shakhriyar Mamedyarov's (Wikipedia image below) games in this variation, things became a lot clearer for me.
To help you out, here are his most instructive wins with 4.f3:
