Nimzovich Experiment Creates Knock-Down, Drag-Out Fight With Shredder

I love experimenting with offbeat openings, not only because the regular stuff bores me to tears, but also because the surprise factor often compensates for objective weaknesses. In that vein I've been experimenting with the Nimzovich, which offers Nc6 in response to 1. e4.

I figure if there's any way to get a handle on an offbeat opening, it's to try it against the computer, which is immune to psychological ploys. So I fired up Shredder and won with the Nimzovich fairly easily at the 1300 and 1600 levels. When Shredder went to the 1800s, though, the game turned into something that felt like a bar brawl -- I managed to win, but it wasn't pretty and didn't leave me feeling proud of myself. Maybe I'll just reserve the Nimzovich for speed chess.