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The King's Indian is frequently played by top level players, but it appears more in their blitz and rapid play games than at standard time limits. I believe this is because less thinking time makes it harder for White to contain Black's counterplay and find good solutions to Black's many plans and ideas. For example in the classical variation (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0) Black has options such as 7...Nc6, 7...Na6, 7...exd4, 7...Nbd7, 7....h6 and 7...Qe8. He also has options on his sixth move, all of which makes it hard for White to prepare good responses and then remember or reconstruct them.
This month I thought I'd take a look at some interesting developments based on two possibilities against the classical system (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2) that classicists would have frowned upon. Firstly there is 6...Re8, which Danil Dubov has been playing, and secondly there is 6...a5. This a-pawn push has been seen in lines where White has committed his bishop to e3 such as the Larsen system (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be3 a5!?) and the Semi-Averbakh (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.Be3 a5!?), perhaps because the position of the bishop on e3 does not lend itself to early central action.

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Classical Variation with 6...Re8 [E91]

I first came across 6.Be2 Re8 in the games of Danil Dubov:

At first I was rather astonished that he could play what seems like a beginner's move, but Dubov has been using this line with some success (for example see Sadek, S - Dubov, D and Suleymenov, Al - Dubov, D).

One of the ideas is to play 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Nb4, with ...e7-e6 coming soon:

another is that after 7.0-0 Nc6 8.Be3 Black has 8...e5 9.d5 Nd4!:

Jan Krzysztof Duda did not seem particularly well prepared for this line in Duda, J - Dubov, D, and that is despite the fact that he had previously been on the Black side (Melkumyan, H - Duda, J).



Classical Variation with 6...a5 [E91]

I can't decide whether I'm more surprised by Duda's 6...Re8 or the equally impudent 6...a5:

Andrew Martin previously covered this move with the game Ftacnik, L - Istratescu, A, which went 7.0-0 Na6 and now 8.Bf4!:

As this does not look very attractive for Black I looked for alternatives, finding that 7.0-0 Bg4 is not silly. After the further moves 8.Be3 Nfd7:

we transpose into a game Ibrayev, N - Forster, R, which had been reached via a 6...Bg4 move order. Playing 6...a5 first allows Black to avoid options such as 6...Bg4 7.Be3 a5 8.h4, which I included in the notes.

If Black starts with 6...a5 then 7.Be3 produces a position which can be reached via several move orders, in fact it's difficult to know where this line belongs in the ECO codes.

Black has two main options in 7...Na6 (see Shaw, J - Hebden, M) and 7...Ng4 (see Lupulescu, C - Niemann, H and Martirosyan, H - Praggnanandhaa, R). This in turn seems to give the ...a7-a5 concept value in several lines.

I was originally hoping to cover such flexible ideas against the fianchetto systems, but with so much material this will have to wait until next month.



Till next month, Nigel Davies

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Don't hesitate to share your thoughts and suggestions. Any queries or comments to the KID Forum, or to me directly at support@chesspublishing.com (subscribers only) would be welcome.