White will attempt to create a pawn centre and develop their pieces to prepare for an assault on the Black position.

Black's delay in committing to a pawn structure makes the Nimzo-Indian (sometimes colloquially referred to as the "Nimzo") a very flexible defence to 1.d4.

An example of Black's strategy carried out successfully is the game Mikhail Botvinnik–Samuel Reshevsky from the 1948 World Chess Championship,[1] which reached the position in the diagram after White's 24th move.

Without prospects for counterplay, White's game is strategically hopeless, and Black ultimately exchanged queens and won the endgame.

Svetozar Gligorić and Lajos Portisch made great contributions to the theory and practice of this line at top level during their careers.

The variation was tried several times by the young Bobby Fischer, and has long been favoured by GM Nukhim Rashkovsky.

At this point, the most important continuations are: After 7...dxc4 8.Bxc4, Black also has two rare alternatives on their eighth move worth mentioning: 8...Qe7 intending ...Rd8 is the Smyslov Variation, invented by former world champion Vasily Smyslov, and 8...Bd7 followed by ...Bc6 is the Bronstein Variation, the brainchild of the former world championship finalist David Bronstein.

In general, the main line of the Rubinstein has held up very well for Black, so since the 1980s White has begun to look elsewhere for chances of obtaining an advantage.

Thus, even though White possesses the bishop pair, it is usually advisable for Black to open the game quickly to exploit their lead in development.

[5] Today as White, this is a favourite weapon of GM Alexei Barsov and former Women's Champion Nona Gaprindashvili.

Now 5.e3 transposes to the Rubinstein System, but the main move is 5.g3, which leads to a position that also arises from the Fianchetto Variation.