King's Indian Attack Chess Opening with FIDE CM Kingscrusher

King's Indian Attack Chess Opening with FIDE CM Kingscrusher

This opening is very popular at club levels because it is relatively easy to learn and minimise the need to learn lots of opening theory. Conceptually the opening has a high level of "independence" in that you can often play the setup independent of what the opponent does. However, there are particular move orders to consider if you don't want in particular the opponent's c8 bishop to be outside of the pawn chain. This course shows the different ways you can play the King's Indian attack depending on your preferences.

In terms of major "exponents", there are several World chess champion exponents of this opening "system". And it is a system because usually the center pawns are developed on e4 and d3, the Knights are on d2 and f3, and the King's bishop fianchettos at g2. This system creates a wide range of different plans. It is not always played in a particular sequence. You can use it for example to enrich your 1. e4 opening repertoire against certain defensive variations.

The legendary Bobby Fischer had a number of fantastic wins with the King's Indian attack. Among British Grandmasters, David Norwood regularly played either 1. g3 or 1. Nf3 and had King's Indian attack systems with huge success. The top Grandmaster exponents nowadays include Bassem Amin who is even a fully qualified doctor outside of chess, Tomasz Markowski, and Sergei Movsesian. Very high profile streamers such as Hikaru Nakamura also make use of systems openings such as the King's Indian attack as well as Nimzo-Larsen attack and others as a way of avoiding tricky opening preparation and making the opening phase a bit easier to play in general.

Bobby Fischer in his early years around 1956 played the King's Indian attack directly with 1. Nf3 followed by 2. g3. Usually in later years after 1956 played it within his 1. e4 repertoire e.g. 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d3. It was with his enrichment of 1.e4 that some of the most beautiful King's Indian attack games occurred and some of the most collected games on online sites are from the King's Indian attack opening. Also, Tigran Petrosian had some masterpiece games with the King's Indian attack system.

In theory, with the move 1. Nf3 the opening is a mirror image of the King's Indian defense, and so you would think the plans are similar. But because White has an extra tempo, and black is not at all obliged to set up a broad pawn center, it makes things in practice quite different from a normal King's Indian Defence.

The opening can help supplement any knowledge of systems like the Reti Opening, Catalan Opening, English Opening, and Nimzo-Larsen attack which means more transpositional destinations which you are potentially more familiar with than opponents, so have an informational advantage.

The "Barcza system"  (pronounced "Bartsa") named after Gideon Barcza is when White plays 1. Nf3 to start off with which means that you get to play the King's Indian attack in more cases, but do allow setups by black where the c8 bishop can be outside of the black pawn chain. Although this has maximum "independence" for whatever black does, black can set up with a pawn structure on c6 and d5 to try and limit the g2 bishop which can feel like playing White against the dreaded London system :)

If you play 1.e4 to start off with then the only slight downside is that you are not guaranteed the classic Kings Indian Attack setup because black has options such as 1...d5 which make the King's Indian setup less appropriate and effective. However, if you know some lines against the Scandinavian, then the "anti-systems" against 1....e5 1...e6 1...c6 and 1...c5 are really great to know about to set up a position that is fairly reliable and not going into the opponent's theoretical preparations as much as they might have hoped for. Instead, you are in "your territory" - home advantage :)

So there are tradeoffs between playing either 1. Nf3 or 1. e4 first to consider. Kingscrusher's preference especially with the inclusion of the Glek system against 1...e5, is to use the King's Indian attack to enrich a 1.e4 repertoire and have maximum fun in general and good results :)

A great opening system which doesn't require much memorisation, is easy to play and can produce attacking brilliancies

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What you will learn

• Ability to see why renowned chess coach Mark Dvoretsky regarded the King's Indian attack as a perfect weapon to which to base an opening repertoire
• Ability to see the power of a thematic "system" that can be used against a wide range of defences
• Ability to play an opening system which has very low memorising requirements and more emphasis on understanding ideas

Rating: 4.7

Level: All Levels

Duration: 20.5 hours

Instructor: Tryfon Gavriel