Gonzalez Jose. Romanishin Variation against the Nimzo-Indian: Repertoire for White

Modern Chess, Opening Databases, 2018.The so-called Romanishin Variation is getting very popular recently. White goes for a flexible setup with the idea to build a long-term positional pressure. The fact that Black has plenty of ways to meet the Romanishin Variation makes its preparation arduous. Black’s available lines are fluctuating from solid equalizing attempts to highly complex and risky tries. As we can see Black faces an annoying dilemma, playing solid aiming for equality would mean in practice being under pressure for several moves. On the other hand, the interesting unbalanced lines tend to be risky. This line was first played by Akiba Rubinstein, later by Alekhine and much later in the 70s Oleg Romanishin used it extensively and with success, but perhaps the most important milestone for the variation came in 1985 when Kasparov used it successfully to beat Karpov. Nowadays, it is employed by the World’s best players occasionally.