Chigorin - Is it good?

I'm thinking of giving a try to another defence for black against d4.

Years ago I was playing the semi-slav and I didn't like it; my problem with it was the passive pieces and all the efforts just to get my share of the centre. I felt like I was in chains.

Now I play the Nimzo and I really like it, especially because it gives me good piece play and simple strategic themes.

The main problem is that white can avoid it; so preparing all the variations in the Nimzo and all the ones in the Bogo (where I find some not really satisfying) is a lot of work.

I'm playing at club level, and I play mostly rapid (and I was thinking of trying OTB blitz). I'm looking for an opening that creates "problems" for white. That means that I want to have white thinking from the beginning, setting little positional traps, and white having to solve problems. In other words, I want an opening that gives white the chance to screw up.

I think this aspect is very underrated for us club players; how easy an opening is to play should be an important consideration. One of my main issue with the semi-slav was in fact that white had pretty much no way to screw up, so even if I went against a much weaker opponent I wouldn't get an advantage out of the opening.

The Nimzo was good in this regard, weaker players didn't really seem to know what they were doing against the Nimzo.

Is the Chigorin in line with these wishes?

sort of... It's one of those 'give up the bishop pair and develop like an open game while White has to play positional moves' kind of openings. Developing is easy in the beginning but the middlegame can be tough if White plays well. There's also a chance that White can play one of those e3 lines and get a French IQP with a Black knight on c6 which you may or may not want.

In my opinion the chigorin is certainly not bad. It might be a little more risky then the GM openings but at our level it does not matter. 

Personally I am never to happy to see black play it against me because often it does not look like normal d4 systems and generally black knows his way better in there then I do. 

Yes, the Chigorin is a good surprise weapon, and is sound too.

Thanks guys.

I'm struggling to find good resources for it; I would love a repertoire book based on the Chigorin, but I have the impression it's a pretty simple opening so there wouldn't be enough material to fill a whole book (let me know if I'm mistaken!).

Do you know of any resource on the Chigorin from black's perspective?

All I have is a couple of videos on youtube.

Also, if somebody was interested in trying out this opening with me in live chess just send me a message.

We could play many 3|2 or 5|2 games always Chigorin so to learn it. I play d4 as white so I'm more than happy to practice with the white side too.

There is a book by none other than Morozevich. Bronznik has written a book too (he is a very diligent author).

Nigel Davies has a video course on it as well : Nigel usually gives a very practical turn to his repertoire suggestions.