King's Indian DefenceE60 – E99
Black's first four moves are always the same: …Nf6, …g6, …Bg7, …d6 and castle, letting White build whatever centre White likes. Then comes …e5, and White has to choose. Taking on e5 trades queens and leads nowhere. Holding the tension keeps a normal game. Pushing d4-d5 closes the centre, and that is the position the King's Indian exists for: with the middle locked, the game becomes two attacks running in opposite directions. White plays c4-c5 and pours down the queenside; Black plays …f5, …f4, …g5, …g4 and h-pawn behind it, and hunts the king. Both attacks are real and the games are decided by a single tempo more often than in any other opening. Two rules keep it playable: never open the centre while your attack is slower than theirs, and the bishop on g7 is the best piece you own even when it is staring at its own pawn on e5.
Played by
- Garry Kasparov — his sharpest defence to 1.d4, played through the 1980s and 1990s when nobody else dared at the top
- Bobby Fischer — a King's Indian player from the start, and one of the first to trust it in world-class events
- Teimour Radjabov — kept the King's Indian alive at the very top in the 2000s, beating Anand and Kramnik with it
Model game
Korchnoi – Kasparov, Euwe Memorial, Amsterdam 1991
Next: d4
