In one sense this is a repertoire book, giving the reader everything he needs to play the Nimzo-Indian (one of Black's very best openings against 1.d4. Be warned: he doesn't cover the Queen's Indian [1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3] or the Catalan [1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3]). Every White line is discussed (after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4), and the author often gives a couple of Black possibilities for consideration, just in case one doesn't work out or isn't to the student's taste. Looking at the book from this level, I have to give Mr. Emms credit for giving so much analytical material in such a small amount of pages. In fact, this nice coverage alone would give the reader ample value for his money.

Having said all this, we can now discuss something that I've never seen a grandmaster do before. First, he gives a nice introduction that offers "A Glance at the Variations" and "Influential Games." All right, such an introduction is something that lower rated players love to see, but it's hardly original.

What is "above and beyond the call of duty," however, is his detailed discussion of the plans, tactics and ideas presented at the beginning of every chapter. Usually, after the Table of Contents and the Introduction, we expect the author to shower us with variations when Chapter One finally appears. This expectation was even greater when I noticed that Chapter One covered the Modern Main Line of the Nimzo (4.Qc2). Grandmaster Emms, though, took it upon himself to show pity to the non-master. After presenting the first four moves and a diagram, he goes berserk with seven pages of discussion, virtually forcing his readers to know what's going on before a single variation is offered!

Turning to Chapter Two (the Rubinstein Variation with 4.e3), he shows the kindness of Chapter One wasn't a lark by immersing us in six more pages of the same kind of instruction! This remarkable effort continues throughout the nine main chapters, when he ends with a bang in Chapter Ten by posing a series of Nimzo quizzes.

This is one of the finest instructive opening books I've ever seen, and Mr. Emms deserves a tremendous amount of credit for taking the time to really teach his readers something. If you have a desire to play this enormously popular opening, this is the best book you can buy on the subject.

A beautiful integration of instruction and concrete analysis. Mr. Emm's ability to merge the two makes this book special.

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