Exeter Chess Club

Introduction to the King's Indian Attack

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"Club players and home enthusiasts often ask me to recommend an openings system for White which is safe, yet aggressive and does not require a superb memory and months of intense learning. In such cases I invariably recommend the King's Indian Attack" -- KEENE


From: "Harold J. Toups" 
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess.analysis
Subject: Re: Any thoughts on King's Indian Attack?
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 1996 18:35:55 -0500
Organization: Premier One
Lines: 26
[...]
Good system. Strong points include
  1. consistent piece setup,
  2. the ability to tackle playing 1.e4 e5 while not having to bookup on all the other systems with detailed theory,
  3. tactical possibilities on the kingside,
  4. sufficient texts available as well as computer tools like Bookup database, and
  5. Robert J. Fischer played the system from time to time (although not against just anything).

Weak points include

  1. allows your opponent a vast number of responses for which you must generate different plans,
  2. does not get you out of having to understand positional chess and pawn breaks,
  3. when played mindlessly against anything black plays, you can get into trouble (scores poorly against some Sicilian systems),
  4. cannot be played against the Scandanavian (Center Counter), and
  5. Robert J. Fischer played the system from time to time (just couldn't resist inserting this one a second time).
Regards ... Harry
The joy of the KIA is flexibility:

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Looking to expand on the King's-side

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Example follow-up

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Looking to expand on Queen's-side or in the centre

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Example follow-up

To understand the KIA it is important to understand the standard King's Indian Defence ideas, which you will play as White. Here is an early King's Indian Defence game, which alerted the chess world to a new way of handling the Black pieces.

Belavanets - Bronstein 13th USSR semi-final, 1941 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 d6 3. Nc3 e5 4. Nf3 Nbd7 5. g3 g6 6. Bg2 Bg7 7. O-O O-O 8. b3 Re8 9. e3 c6 10. Qc2 Qa5 11. a4 Nf8 12. Ba3 Bf5 13. Qb2 Rad8 14. Rfd1 e4 15. Nd2 Ne6

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The Qa5 is not typical, but we can see several themes here:

16. b4 Qc7 17. Rdb1 Qd7 18. c5 Ng5

More over-protection

19. cxd6 Bh3 20. Bh1 Qf5 21. Ne2 Nd5 22. b5 Bg4
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23. Kf1

Two sword-swipes with the Knights decide the game.

23...Nxe3+ 24. Ke1 Nf3+ 0-1

Now, wouldn't that all be better with an extra move? Let's see now...

Petrosian - Pachman, Bled, 1961 1. Nf3 c5 2. g3 Nc6 3. Bg2 g6 4. O-O Bg7 5. d3 e6 6. e4 Nge7 7. Re1 O-O 8. e5 d6 9. exd6 Qxd6

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Black seems to have good chances

10. Nbd2 Qc7 11. Nb3 Nd4 12. Bf4 Qb6 13. Ne5 Nxb3

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Now a very cute intermezzo

14. Nc4 Qb5 15. axb3 a5 16. Bd6 Bf6 17. Qf3 Kg7 18. Re4

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Now the blow that made this game famous - not so much for the first move:

19. Qxf6+ Kxf6 20. Be5+ Kg5 21.Bg7 1-0

..but this last one - quiet but deadly.

21... Nf5 22. f4+ Kg4 23. Ne5+ Kh5 24. Bf3# mates

or even easier:

If you'v e got the idea, we can look at some concrete variations: in the Sicilian or in other half-open defences .


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This document (sic10.txt.html) was last modified on 25 Jan 1996 by

Dr. Dave