Indian Defense: Anti-Nimzo-Indian: what should White play?

In the Indian Defense: Anti-Nimzo-Indian, White's most established and direct continuation is Nc3, developing a minor piece to contest the center and exert pressure on d5. Chosen in 56.6% of recorded games (over 12M instances), it maintains a slight engine evaluation of +0.13 while scoring 54.2% for White. Alternatively, White can opt for a solid fianchetto structure via g3, yielding a comparable evaluation of +0.14 and a 56.5% score across 4.83M games.

Development with Nc3

The move Nc3 develops the queen's knight to its most active square, directly contesting central space alongside f3. By playing this move, White enters positions akin to the Queen's Gambit Declined while sidestepping the Nimzo-Indian Defense, as the early placement of f3 prevents Black's typical pin-based setups. An illustrative continuation demonstrating mutual piece development is Nc3 c6 Bg5 h6 Bxf6 Qxf6.

Strategic Alternatives: g3 and e3

Players seeking distinct pawn structures often explore White's secondary options. The Catalan-style fianchetto g3 occurs in 22.6% of database games and leads naturally into setups such as g3 Bb4+ Bd2 Be7 Bg2 O-O. Meanwhile, e3 represents a quieter approach seen in 11.9% of games (2.55M recorded, scoring 52.3%), leading to positions exemplified by e3 Be7 Be2 O-O O-O dxc4.

Resolving the Center or Delaying

White also has access to immediate central clarification through cxd5, played in 7.5% of games (1.60M recorded) with an evaluation of -0.03 and an illustrative sequence of cxd5 exd5 Nc3 c6 Qc2 g6. Finally, the rare waiting move a3 is found in 1.3% of games (274K recorded, eval -0.09), where play can follow a3 dxc4 e3 a6 Bxc4 c5.