Unlike the previously reviewed Easy Guide to the Nimzo-Indian by Emms (which was highly instructive and also variation rich), Kosten's Mastering the Nimzo-Indian With the Read and Play Method avoids analysis and variations entirely, preferring to offer only typical Nimzo plans, pawn structures and ideas.

In a way, this is more a middlegame book that only uses Nimzo-Indian motifs. The idea is that chapters like "Strategic Overview" (doubled pawns, two Bishops and the White pawn center), "Resolving the Central Tension" (isolated d-pawns, hanging pawns, the classical center and much more), "The Dark-Squared Blockade" (the Hubner center, the Leningrad center, the Benoni center, the Samisch center and the Zurich center), and "The Black Queenside Fianchetto" (the Dutch setup, the 4.Qc2 center, the struggle of the fianchettoed Bishops, the flexible center and the English center) will enable you to play this opening from a deep basis of understanding (something far superior to mindless memorization).

While it's true that you can't get far without knowing the ideas of an opening, you also can't get far without knowing some concrete lines (sorry, but this is a sad fact). Thus, I strongly recommend that anyone wishing to employ the Nimzo-Indian buy both the Emms and the Kosten books.

Kosten's latest is a great book for players in the "C" category and below. The middlegame ideas presented here are valuable even if you don't want to play the Nimzo-Indian, so KID players, QGD players, and just about any other kind of player (in that "C" and below category) might wish to pick up a copy and "pretend" it's a middlegame tome.

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