The January Update
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Hi everyone! Only about a week ago I was asked to replace Joe, the «King's Indian guru», who decided to call it a day rather abruptly. Although at the very beginning Joe himself wrote the following: "Guru, I don't think so, but I do admit to knowing a thing or two about the King's Indian", I think that going through Joe's games and comments you quickly understood that he's just a very modest guy... Anyway, starting from now on I'll try to do my best to help you to enjoy the King's Indian. Victor Mikhalevski |
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I would like to divide this update into four parts:
Classical: The system with 7...Na6
To download the January '04 KI games directly in PGN form, click here: 
Classical: The Bayonet attack
Allow me to start with the Bayonet attack of the Classical system and our first game Drabke,L - Kayumov,S which featured Kramnik's pet-line 13.Be3.
           
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In this position White played the dubious 19.Bc5?! instead of 19.Bc2.
The resulting endgame doesn't promise any advantage. Sometimes even good players go for this drawish line. By the way, similar positions may arise also in the lines with 13.b5 and 13.Ba3. This game is not particularly interesting, but I have tried to include plenty of information concerning the opening part of the game.
Our second game features a brilliant Shirov win over Radjabov in Linares, 2004. Shirov opens with a relatively rare line 13.Bb2 and then sacrifices an exchange with 19.Rxe5! which was considered to be not too dangerous for Black:
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Two moves later he comes up with an interesting novelty 21.Bb2!? and eventually wins the game in good style, see Shirov,A - Radjabov,T.
Then we have a fashionable line with 12.f3 instead of 12.Bf3 with my recent game Mikhalevski,V - Kantsler,B played in the Israeli Team Championship 2004, with White obtaining a clear advantage from the opening. Then I went in for a weak combination and had to fight my way back to equalize.
Classical: The system with 7...Na6
Classical: The system with 7...Na6
Two interesting games were played in the Bermuda Invitational 2004 by highly-rated GM Sergey Movsesian.
The first game against Israeli number one Boris Gelfand saw a fashionable line with 11.Nd2:
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With strong play in the opening White obtained a clear positional advantage, but then missed his chances and had to be satisfied with a draw. See Gelfand,B - Movsesian,S.
The second game against American Champion Alex Shabalov features another fashionable set-up with 11.h3, when theories last word gives 13.c5:
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Alex wins an exchange for a pawn, but allows some initiative. Eventually this fascinating game ends in a draw, see Shabalov,A - Movsesian,S. Real fighting chess!
Classical: The system with 7...Na6
Saemisch
Our first game in the Saemisch Dreev,A - Gallagher,J, is a fantastic thriller played by top GM Alexey Dreev and our own «King's Indian guru» in Dreev's favourite line with an early 6.Nge2:
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Dreev comes up with an interesting novelty 14.Bf2!, which leads to fireworks. Fantastic play by both players should have led to a well-deserved draw, but Joe makes a fatal mistake on move 28 and gets mated.
In our next game, Kuzmin,A - Sandipan,C, the main line with 6.Be3 was played.
Strong play by the young Indian star brings him a solid victory over an experienced Russian.
Classical: The system with 7...Na6
Petrosian
Our last game in the January update was played in an interesting 2-game match which took place on the Playchess.com server. 2000 Russian Champion Sergey Volkov took-on the challenge of one of the best computer programs Deep Fritz 8.
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The initial position of Petrosian's line after 8.Bg5.
White played a rare line with 12.b3 and was completely outplayed by one of the best computer programs, see Volkov,S - Deep Fritz 8. Well-done, Fritz!
Classical: The system with 7...Na6
Enjoy the issue. See you soon.
Victor Mikhalevski
Don't hesitate to share your thoughts and suggestions with me. Any queries or comments to the KID Forum, or to me directly at Victor@ChessPublishing.com (subscribers only) would be most welcome.