EDITOR’s NOTE: Starting today, we present Chess 101, a series on helping strengthen chess fundamentals with breakdowns from Shivika Rohilla, a Woman FIDE Master based in New Delhi, who is also the founder of the Shivika Rohilla Chess Academy (SRCA). After the standard 1.e4 and 1.d4 openings, one of White’s most respectable options is 1.b3, often known as the Nimzowitsch-Larsen opening. Dutch player Maarten van’t Kruijs used 1.b3 in a serious game for the first time in history in 1851. Aron Nimzowitsch, a Latvian-Danish grandmaster, experimented with 1.b3 in the 1920s and 1930s, frequently transposing it into positions that resembled the Nimzo-Indian Defense. The opening gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s thanks to Danish grandmaster Bent Larsen. Between 1968 and 1972, he played it a lot, most notably at the Monte Carlo tournament in 1968. Even after suffering a crushing defeat against Boris Spassky in 1970, Larsen could use the opening in later matches successfully. In certain instances, even Robert James Fischer (Bobby Fischer) used 1.b3. Black’s most popular reply these days …