Bogo-Indian and Nimzo-Indian Structures According to Andersson
A Rare Opportunity to Listen to One of Chess History's Most Respected Positional Players
For more than five decades, GM Ulf Andersson has been recognised as one of the finest positional players in chess history. Awarded the Grandmaster title in 1972 and at his peak ranked number four on the FIDE rating list, Andersson built a body of work that several generations of strong players have studied for its structural clarity and his almost legendary endgame technique. To this day, his games appear in serious training programmes around the world — not because they are spectacular, but because they teach.
In this new course, the Swedish grandmaster joins GM Petar Arnaudov for a series of in-depth video discussions analysing eight of his own games as Black against 1.d4 — the openings he played consistently throughout his career: the Nimzo-Indian against 3.Nc3 Bb4, and the Bogo-Indian against 3.Nf3 Bb4+. This is the second Andersson collaboration on Modern Chess, following his earlier course with GM Grigor Grigorov on the Reti and Catalan endings. The result is not a theoretical opening course. It is something rarer: a chance to listen to a great positional player explain how he saw the positions in real time, against the very strongest opposition of his era.
Why This Course Exists
The pawn structures of the Nimzo-Indian and Bogo-Indian are among the most important in classical chess. They appear from a wide variety of move orders, they feature in countless top games, and they form the strategic backbone of many serious 1.d4 repertoires. Yet most courses cover them as theoretical lines first, and structures second.
Andersson's approach inverts that order. Throughout his career, he treated these openings as structural territories rather than theoretical battlegrounds, returning to them again and again against Kasparov, Karpov, Korchnoi, Spassky, Miles, and a generation of top players. What he learned from those games — the patient manoeuvring, the long-term piece placements, the moments when a middlegame quietly tips into a winnable endgame — is now distilled into eight discussions with GM Arnaudov, supported by tests and supplementary material.
The Format: A Conversation Without Engines
The course is presented as a series of recorded video discussions. Before recording, Arnaudov did not preview the games with an engine, and Andersson was unaware which games would be selected. This methodology was deliberate. It preserves Andersson's natural thought process — the candidate moves he considers and rejects, the moments he flags as critical, and the practical evaluations he makes by feel rather than by calculation.
The result is something an engine-prepared analysis cannot reproduce. You see how a classical 2600+ grandmaster actually thinks at the board — how he weighs harmony, structure, and human factors, and how he turns small inaccuracies by the opponent into the kind of subtle long-term pressure that has made his games legendary among trainers.
The Eight Games
The course is organised around the major structural fields a Black player encounters after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6:
Nimzo-Indian Section
- Game 1: Kasparov–Andersson, World Cup Skellefteå 1989 — 4.Qc2 with doubled c-pawns; the recurring decision between ...d6 and ...b6 setups.
- Game 2: Karpov–Andersson, Reggio Emilia 1989 — the same Nimzo with 4.Qc2 against another World Champion, illustrating the long-term play in these structures.
- Game 3: Azmaiparashvili–Andersson — the Huebner Variation (4.e3 c5), with the blocked centre and doubled c-pawns producing one of the most strategically distinctive Nimzo structures.
- Game 4: Seirawan–Andersson — Andersson's treatment of the ambitious 4.f3.
- Game 5: Sokolov–Andersson — the Rubinstein with 4.e3 O-O 5.Bd3 d5, where the symmetrical structure invites long technical play.
Bogo-Indian Section
- Game 6: Miles–Andersson — the solid 4.Bd2 with Queen's-Indian-style ...b6 development.
- Game 7: Quinteros–Andersson — 4.Bd2 leading to Carlsbad-related structures.
- Game 8: Nikolic–Andersson — 4.Bd2 with a later ...d5 and cxd5 exchange, transitioning into the kind of minor-piece endgame Andersson handles like no one else.
What Unifies the Course
Beyond the openings, what unifies the eight games is Andersson's structural philosophy. He plays for long-term safety rather than immediate equality. He accepts slightly cramped positions when they offer durable pawn structures, trusting that a sound position will reveal its merits across many moves. He judges positions by piece harmony, pawn structure, and practical playability — not by computer evaluation. And he treats endgame technique as inseparable from middlegame planning, which is why so many of his games converge into the same kind of slow, technical positions in which his opponents quietly drift.
These principles are not stated abstractly. They emerge organically through his comments — often in phrases like "I prefer to have the pawn on b2 rather than b4" or "this is much better than an isolated pawn on d5". Every choice carries reasoning that any serious player can absorb, and that no engine evaluation can teach.
A Bonus Chapter: General Thoughts about Style
Between the games, the course includes a separate conversational chapter — General Thoughts about Style — in which Andersson speaks more freely about chess style and the players he has known. He reflects on the World Champions he played and admired (Spassky in particular), shares memories of watching a Kasparov–Spassky blitz match in Tilburg, and offers his impressions of Magnus Carlsen's unique qualities. These are personal reflections from a man who has been a witness to fifty years of top-level chess, and they are worth the time of any student of the game's history.
What's Included
- Eight annotated games, each presented as a full video discussion between Andersson and Arnaudov
- General Thoughts about Style — bonus conversational chapter on style, the World Champions, and Carlsen
- Appendix A: Test Positions — 20+ critical moments drawn from the eight games, with solutions and explanations, so that the structural ideas can be practised rather than only read
- Appendix B: Supplementary Games — bonus material consisting of model games from other Modern Chess courses, grouped by the same structural themes (Nimzo 4.Qc2 with ...d6/...b6, Huebner Variation, 4.f3 systems, Rubinstein with ...d5, Bogo 4.Nd2, and Bogo 4.Bd2), for those who wish to extend the study of each structure beyond Andersson's own games
- Full PGN file with all annotations and material, downloadable to keep
Who This Course Is For
The course assumes a serious player — roughly FIDE 1800 and above — and rewards anyone willing to slow down and listen. It will be equally valuable for three different kinds of student:
- Black players who play (or want to play) the Bogo-Indian or Nimzo-Indian and want to understand the resulting structures at the level of a grandmaster who has played them his entire career
- White players who face these openings regularly and want a deeper understanding of what their opponents are aiming for, and why
- Anyone studying classical positional play and endgame technique — Andersson's games are taught by trainers worldwide for exactly these qualities
You do not need to have a complete Nimzo or Bogo repertoire to benefit. You need the willingness to spend time in the company of a great positional player and absorb the way he sees a chess position.
Pairs Naturally With: Endgames with Andersson — Reti and Catalan Endings
For readers who want to extend their study of Andersson's positional thinking, his earlier Modern Chess collaboration with GM Grigor Grigorov is the natural companion. Endgames with Andersson – Reti and Catalan Endings examines eleven of his games across three classical structures — symmetrical Catalan endings, c4-versus-d6 structures, and the English Hedgehog — and applies the same engine-free discussion methodology used in the present course.
The two courses fit together as a complete picture of Andersson's classical structural thinking: the Reti and Catalan course shows him as White, playing for long-term positional pressure and steering games toward the endgames in which he is most dangerous; the present course shows him as Black, holding the positions that emerge from the Nimzo and Bogo-Indian. Together, they cover both sides of the same philosophy.
Listen to a Legend
Few players have shaped the modern understanding of classical chess as quietly, and as durably, as Ulf Andersson. Bogo-Indian and Nimzo-Indian Structures According to Andersson gives you eight games in his company — analysed without engine assistance, in conversation with GM Arnaudov — explaining the choices that defined his career, in a format no computer-prepared course can replicate.