What do I play against the Nimzo-Indian

If you want offbeat, 4. f3!? can cause your opponent to underestimate you while you head for Saemisch positions.

Or the trap 4. e4? which is actually a blunder. 4. e4? Nxe4 5. Qg4 Nxc3 6. a3 and now 6...Ba5? 7. Qxg7!, but 6...Be7! just leaves you down a pawn and position.

In such situations I mostly play 4.a3. I do not know whether its passive but I regard trade of bishop vs my knight nicer for myself so early in the game.And if he does not trade, eitherhe is forced to pull it back or move 4. ..a5 in which case b4 puts this bishop in a mess. Though I do not have much experience with this, I will be happy if you guys here analyse this as well.

That's the Saemisch. It's letting Black do exactly what he wants. He'll double your pawns and play c5, b6, Ba6, Nc6-a5 and build up the pressure on the c4 pawn so much so that you'll wish you'd never played a3. I'm sure there are ways for White to play against it but in my brief sojourn with the Nimzo it never even remotely posed any problems. 100% record against it.

4a3 is the critical test of the Nimzo, white just doesn't believe what black is trying to do, and is happy to sac the c4 pawn, for attacking chances with two bishops and centre. Usually 1.d4 club players are opposite to this, and are frightened to death of pin and potential pawn structure damage. They go through two stages first avoid pin with 3Nf3, and then discover 4Qc2 and later a3. 

To be honest don't have impression OP, and a lot of people replying, are at stage of needing particular opening moves, i.e "theory". They would do better looking at GM games and typical plans. For example, Bronstein's Zurich 53' contains lots of nimzo games. Looking at his annotations would give an idea of what white and black trying to do. Will see quite a few white wins too, because Nimzo isn't quite the perfect defense lots of club players seem to beleive.

Theres like 8 different lines vs the Nimzo

I'd recommend e3 for starting out. It's the old main line, sound and principled.

f3, the kmoch variation, is surely interesting. Black needs to find precise moves to maintain an equal game. The plan is, in short, to expand with e4 at the right time, and to enjoy the two bishops.

4.f3 isn't really a big deal, but rather awkward to meet when Black wants to play for a win. After toying for years with the main lines as Black, recently I settled for a rather new and promising plan. While objectively equal, the position is quite unbalanced and gives both sides many opportunities to go wrong.

Here are a couple of games (computer assisted correspondence chess):

As a c5 Nimzo-Indian player this game interest me a lot.  I wouldn't play f3 as white but only as a matter of personal style as I play 3.Nf3 lines.  White looks like he overextends and will be horribly weak on the dark squares. 

8...b5 made me go (woah!) and I'm still contemplating at this position. 

1...Nxd5 winning the bishop pair, but increases white's activity with 12.Qxd5! forcing the queen to defend the rook (indirectly) from b6.  As a Sicilian player the d5 hole doesn't really bother me, but it'd always be on my mind. 

I was trying to figure out why you didn't play 13...Bb7 with tempo, then I realized that the Bc8 is keeping a knight from the powerful f5 square and bites on granite there anyway, though does look like it prepares a d5 advance.  Can't place a pawn on a square if a queen (or any piece) occupies the one if front of it after all.

15.Be3?! looks like a positional blunder trading bishop for knight, where the bishops should be superior in the ensuing endgame and especially egregious since the bishop defends weak squares. 

17.Nd5 ahh, playing for a cheap tactical trick, threaten the queen then fork the rooks.  At least it forces black to give up the bishop pair (likely main reason given that he is rated over 1800). 

19...Qxd5! trading queens and plugging the d5 hole.  Like Soltis says it isn't what leaves the board that matters but what says on.  Black will bring the passive Ra8 into the game and already from move 19 I can tell that the black king will be more active than the white one. 

22.h3 he doesn't want his pawns being targets for the bishop, but what actually happens is it weakens the squares around it. 

Although I obviously didn't do any deep calculation I really enjoyed looking at the game and finding the reasoning and principles behind said moves. 

I allways play Qc2 and I feel it's a nice option.

Try not to play nimzo.

many white players avoid it because they often end up with doubled pawns on c file.Try playing 3.Nf3

The doubled pawns are a non-issue and could even add extra central support.  White gets the bishop pair as compensation. 

if you play 3. Nf3 to avoid the nimzo you might just end up playing a razgozin and face the same situation anyway. the qid also has a lot of lines where black plays Bb4, so it's pointless fearing the pin.

I also don't like to play against the Nimzo and try to avoid it by either playing 3.Nf3 or 3.g3 (Catalan) . After 3.Nf3 Black has the option to go into the QI-Defence (3. .. b6). By playing 3.g3 you rule out Black's option for a QID and play will become positional and slow.I personally like the Catalan because Black will have a hard time developping his Q-side.

So after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 Black has to make a decision. If he playes 6. .. dc4 7.Qc2 it becomes difficult for Black to either keep his extra pawn (c4) or developpe his c7-pawn.

This off course avoids the Nimzo but invites trhe Bogo,the Benoni the KID and IDK how many more responses for Black to 3.Nf3

Here is a recent game from the candidates where white manages to cope with doubled pawns.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1713634

Already in the 30's Botvinnik was playing games were made positive use of the doubled pawns.

Thank you all for posting intresting comments :)

I vote for  1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4. Nf3!?

The Kasparov variation or the Flexible variation as it was labeled by GM Svetozar Gligoric. 

One reason is that black players dont play against it as often as the two big main lines and you will play on "your backyard".And it is also fully playable and sound.GM Eric Bacrot is a specialist in this line with a great score.

It can also be reached via the QID (3.Nf3)  move order if you would like to flexibly avoid the Bogo-Indian (blocking the check with 3.Nc3). But maybe more to study in that case as you have to play vs BOTH the Nimzo and the QID. You can also play 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.Nc3   and vs 4...Bb7 you can play 5.a3 the Petrosian system of the Queens Indian or vs 4...Bb4 you can enter the Seirawan system with 6.Qb3!? which is also very playable.

This combination of the knights going to either f3 or c3 on either move 3 or 4 leads to many interesting different positions and interesting ways you can construct your white repertoire.

Sources on the Kasparov variation :

1. nimzo-indian kasparov variation  by Chris Ward  Everymanchess

2. Guide to the Bogo-Indian by Steffen Pedersen   Gambit

3. Starting out the Nimzo-Indian by Chris Ward    Everymanchess

4. The Nimzo Indian (20 pages)    By Svetozar Gligoric            Cadogan Pergamon

5. The New Bogo-Indian (19 pages)  by Shaun Taulbut     Cadogan chess

Players : GM E.Bacrot, GM Alexander Moiseenko,SGM Kasparov,

Yes...4.a3  The Sämisch is very interesting. A good conceptual choice where you learn a lot about how to play with the double pawns. I think every white player who choose to face the Nimzo would benefit from playing this variation as white for a while (if not permanently).

I think John Watson has  made a video or two on the Sämisch right ?

...does not exist.

Unless he changed his first name recently, that is.

You are correct:

Étienne Bacrot

Nothing else