Russian Game: Nimzowitsch Attack (C42)

Today i tried on Fics the Russian Game: Nimzowitsch Attack (C42) and i had a good impression using it.

Who usually plays ,if occurs, this opening?

What's your impression?

I like 5Nc3 as well, I think I would be tempted to recapture the knight with the d pawn though, don't have any deep analysis behind it, just looks more natural IMHO

What you say is right about recapturing with the d pawn, but the main idea behind it is to make difficult to develop the bishop on c8 with the rook on b1.

I played this opening few times, and the only thing that worried me was how to protect my light square bishop. In this game after 9.b6 I thought he was trying the exchange of LSB with .10 Ba6

I never studied this opening and I don't know the best continuations but i think it's very playable for white.

If you recapture with the d pawn the main idea, i think, is to castle long and push your pawns on the king side. Maybe after the recapture with the d pawn, during the game you can push your double pawn on c4 influencing the center.

With 6.dxc3 the pawn structure has less weaknesses than 6.bxc3 and that's a good thing but i would like to know the main plan after 6.dxc3. I don't know if  I should castle long and push my pawns or castle short and put the rooks on the open files. I prefer the last idea. Which is better for you?

I think this discussion should continue, it's been 12 years-