King's Indian Attack

Transcription

Hello and welcome back to chessopenings.com. In today's video we're going to take a look at a very interesting set up for White known as the King's Indian attack. And in the King's Indian attack, White takes a different approach to controlling the center, than we are custom to seeing. Instead of trying to directly occupy the center with two pawns, White is going to use his pieces to control the center from afar, and only later, after gaining a solid position, will White try to counter strike in the center. Let's take a look. Now, there are many orders which can lead to the King's Indian attack setup for White, but White's most sure fire way to get the King's Indian Attack position is with knight to f3, followed by the moves, g3 and bishop g2, and this is the basic King's Indian Attack set up that we're looking for. Now while this option is the most sure fire way to gain the King's Indian position, there are some players who like to use the King's Indian attack as part of the King's pawn repertoire, so many players actually like to begin with e4, and then against the French or potentially different variations of the Sicilian, only then will White look for ways to achieve the same King's Indian set up. But we'll discuss this a little bit later in the video, and to start with, we're just going to focus on this move, knight to f3. Now Black usually either plays pawn to d5 in this position, or he plays pawn to d5 after the moves, knight of 6, g3, and pawn to d5. So, that eventually, this is the main position we will reach when White will play, bishop to g2, and it's from this position that I would like to start our discussion. Now, White's setup in this position allows him great flexibility in the center, since he hasn't deployed any pawns there yet. Also, White has no problems in this position castling quickly and into a safe position. On the other hand, however, Black is not facing any real pressure in this position, and this has allowed him to set up a stronghold on d5 without very many problems, and it allows him to select from a variety of different strategies. Also because of the slack of direct pressure, Black tends to have little problems finding convenient squares for his pieces. The setup White has in this position is the reverse of the King's Indian defense, which normally would begin with the moves, pawn to d4, knight to f6, pawn to c4, and now this move, pawn to g6, knight c3, and bishop to g7. And notice that Black's set up on the King's side is exactly the same as what we've been studying for the White in the King's Indian attack. In the King's Indian attack White would also have an extra temple in this position. However, I want to draw your attention to a very subtle point in this position. In the King's Indian defense, after the moves, pawn to d4, and knight of 6, White now plays his most precise move which is pawn to c4, and at this time, he doesn't actually know what setup it is that Black is going to be aiming for. Will he be playing for the King's Indian defense with g6, or a GUnfeld, also, or will he be playing for the King's Indian defense with g6, or a Grunfeld, also, or will he be playing for a Nimzo Indian with e6 or will he be trying c5 in this position. So the main point here is that, White does play pawn to c4, and he doesn't yet know what system Black will use. So in the King's Indian defense, however, Black only now plays g6, and the fact that White has played c4, is actually a mixed blessing for White. It allows Black to base his counter-play a little bit more effectively against this point on d4, since White has already committed the C pawn to an advance square and cannot use the C pawn to defend that d4 square, and this factor is very critical because this is what Black largely bases the initial part of his strategy on. But if we back up to this King's Indian attack version, after the moves, knight f3, and, let's say, pawn to d5, followed by g3, something very critical happens here. Which is that, although White has an extra temple, this is actually a mixed blessing in this position. True, he's developing more quickly but Black also has the benefit of knowing that White was going to choose the King's Indian setup before he deployed his C pawn. So it shouldn't come as a surprise then, that typically after the moves, knight of 6 and bishop g2, instead of advancing this pawn way out to c5 and allowing White to have an extra temple in the counterattack against the d5 point, instead Black plays the move, pawn to c6, a rock solid move, and Black reserves this pawn for defensive purposes. This really removes a lot of the dynamic potential from White's position, since he was really banking on cracking at the central pawns and exploiting the bishop's handsome placement on g2. Of course, chess always involves a little bit of give and take. In this position, despite the fact that Black has accrued many of the benefits that we have talked about, he has done a couple of things here. This pawn formation on c6 and d5, actually tends to be quite a bit rigid for Black, unlike the more aggressive placement of the White pawns in the King's Indian defense, the pawns are not in any sort of position to advance themselves and to eventually create weaknesses. On the other hand, Black has also denied his knight on b8, its most logical square on c6. I think if White is playing for an advantage in this position, he's going to try to count on the fact that his minor pieces can get just a little more harmony going in the positions that lie ahead. At the same time, he's going to be counting on the rigidity of Black's structure, as giving him some sort of free hand, since Black often does not have very many aggressive ideas in these positions which arise. After White castles in this position, it's time for Black to think about how to play this light squared bishop. In these days the move is usually bishop g4, but bishop f5 is also quite good for Black. And now after the natural moves, d3, knight b d7, knight b d2, we reach a typical sort of situation White has still reframed from playing any pawns in the center and remains flexible. White's main idea, however, is to finally take a crack at the center pawns with the move, e2 to e4, and eventually White even hopes to threaten to advance the pawn all the way to e5. As a part of this plan, White often plays queen e1 first, and then looks to play this move, pawn to e4, removing the pin with this move, queen e1, and supporting the moves, e4 and e5 even further. However, in this position it's Black's move and a popular approach for Black is to play e5 here, gaining more support for the center and this all falls very logically. First we saw that Black moves its bishop out from behind the pawn chain, now we have knight b d7, and now Black has finally supported this move, pawn to e5, and he gains more share of the center. An example of how play could continue here is, for example, pawn to e4 and now many games have gone bishop d6, h3, bishop h5, queen e1, castles, and now this interesting move, knight to h4. When White is trying to exploit as we said earlier these very subtle differences in the harmony of his minor pieces, in this position he hoping to bring the knight to f5 and harass the bishop or he can also look to play g4 at some point in this kind of position. Theory says this position is about equal, but both sides have plenty of scope to try to outplay the opponent. Backing up to the position after castling king side, instead of bishop g4, Black also have the option of bishop f5. And now after the move, d3, he throws in this move, pawn to h6, in order to give his bishop an escape square on h7. Now after the move, knight b d2 and e6, White once again is looking for a way to achieve this break pawn to e4 in this position. And it looks like the most natural way to do this would be rook to e1, but in fact this is still not the best way to prepare this advance. After the move, bishop e7, it would appear that White could play pawn to e4 but in fact this is a trap. After the move pawn to e4, Black would simply play, pawn takes pawn on e4, pawn takes pawn and now the excellent move knight takes pawn, taking advantage of the fact that after knight takes knight there is queen takes queen, rook takes queen, and Black is just up a pawn without any compensation for White. So backing up to this position, instead of the move, rook to e1, White once again should rely on the queen sortie, queen to e1, in order to help support this e4 break. Play now normally continues bishop to e7, pawn to e4 and bishop to h7, and this is a position that has been reached hundreds of times but the consensus seems to be that both sides have about equal chances. Black has a solid formation and unlike the bishop g4 variations, he's developed his light squared bishop in a very secure and bulletproof position. White on the other hand, hopes to prove that his position can more easily be improved upon. White can choose between a variety of strategies including flexibly continuing his general developments, with moves, like queen to e2, and b3, and bishop to b2, this is one strategy to set up for. Or he can also try in this position to sink a knight into d5, and play f4 expanding on the king's side. So there's plenty of room for interesting play for White and for Black in these positions. So, backing up to the position after pawn to c6, it turns out that Black is able to deploy his bishop outside of the pawn chain before he plays the move, e6, and that he's able to get a very solid setup in this position. I think it's this detail about e6, which explains why many players, who are no longer willing to play the King's Indian attack using the knight f3 move order, are sometimes willing to play it after the move, pawn to e4, and after Black plays an early pawn to e6. So, for example, against the French defense, pawn to e6, White actually can now play the move, pawn to d3, preparing to meet d5 as is often played with the move, knight d2, and this allows us to recapture on e4, with a pawn without having to worry about an exchange of queens in this position. Now black normally plays knight f6, and White now heads for his King's Indian attack setup, utilizing the fact that the pawn is already on e6, and Black cannot develop the light squared bishop so White plays knight G to f3, pawn to c5, g3, knight c6, bishop g2, we're just showing some kind of standard moves in this position, bishop to e7, castles king side. So notice that once again we've achieved pretty much exactly the same setup which we saw earlier. But in this position Black has not been able to bring his bishop out, notice the poor position which is inhabited by this bishop on c8. And this will tend to keep Black cramped for some time, and will also make it easier for White to generate his own attack, without having to worry about the bishop's pressure on the center. White can more or less aim for the same sorts of positions against the Sicilian if Black plays an early move, pawn to c6. For example, pawn to e4, pawn to c5, knight f3, and now e6 is a very common move trying to head to all kinds of [inaudible 11:42] Sicilian systems. But if White is so inclined, he once again can aim for the King's Indian attack, with the move, pawn to d3. And once again, Black will have a harder time because this bishop on c8 cannot find a good square. In my opinion, these versions offer White much better chances to seize the long term initiative, but, of course, they require White to be prepared to meet a wide range of other opening systems by Black, including other variations of the Sicilian or the variations of the King's pawn game beginning with pawn to e5 against pawn to e4. I hope this video has given you some insight into the King's Indian attack. Black always seems to have sufficient play in these lines, but I think White can use this King's Indian attack to simplify his opening studies, and also to direct the game into strategic channels, where he can hope to outplay his opponent. That's it for today. I'll see you next time.