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King's Indian Defense

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6

A hypermodern defense where Black lets White build a big center, then strikes back at it with pieces and pawn breaks.

Fun fact: The King's Indian was regarded as highly suspect until the mid-1930s, yet it later became a favorite of world champions such as Mikhail Tal, Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov. Source

Practice this opening

The idea

The King's Indian is a hypermodern defense: Black doesn't fight for the center with pawns at first. After 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6, White has a big pawn center on c4, d4 and e4, and Black has a fianchettoed bishop, a safe king and plans to strike back later.

Black challenges the center with ...e5 or ...c5. If White answers by pushing d5 and closing the center, the game becomes a race: Black attacks on the kingside with ...f5, White on the queenside.

Plans for White

Use the space. The main setups are the Classical (Nf3, Be2 and short castling), the Sämisch (f3 and Be3, often with long castling and a kingside pawn storm) and the Four Pawns Attack (f4, grabbing as much of the center as possible).

When the center closes, White's play is on the queenside, usually with the c4-c5 break.

Plans for Black

Castle, then strike at the center with ...e5 (or ...c5). When White closes the center with d5, Black's main plan is ...Nd7 or ...Ne8 and ...f5, followed by ...f4 and ...g5 for an attack on White's king.

The bishop on g7 is Black's best piece. Keep it, and the long diagonal it controls.

Watch out for

For Black, the early ...e5 in the Averbakh Variation (5.Be2 O-O 6.Bg5). After 6...e5? 7.dxe5 dxe5 8.Qxd8 Rxd8 9.Nd5, the pinned knight on f6 and the pawn on c7 are both under attack, and White wins material.

For White, underestimating Black's kingside attack. In the main lines, Black's pawn storm can arrive faster than White's play on the queenside.

The early ...e5 against the Averbakh

5.Be2 O-O 6.Bg5 e5 7.dxe5 dxe5 8.Qxd8 Rxd8 9.Nd5

History

Soviet players such as Isaac Boleslavsky, David Bronstein and Alexander Konstantinopolsky made the opening respectable. Fischer and Kasparov both played it, and players such as Teimour Radjabov and Hikaru Nakamura still use it today.

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