King's Indian?

Submitted by ericmittens on Mon, 08/24/2009 at 8:57am.

For awhile now I've been trying to find an alternative to the Benko Gambit vs. 1.d4. The Benko is by far my favorite opening vs. d4 but the problem with it is it's so easy for white to avoid. For example, white can just play 2.Nf3 or after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 he can play 3.Nf3 (or 3.e3). For the past few months I've been trying to find another opening that I enjoy playing as much as the Benko and can be played against different move orders.

First I tried the semi-slav structures, but after facing 2 semi-slavs in 4 rounds at the Canadian Open and many others in my club I am rather turned off the slav complex as a whole. It seems EVERYONE is playing a slav of some sorts these days and so that one gets a pass.

Then I tried the Queen's Gambit Accepted as it has a similar structure to the Meran Semi-Slav which I enjoyed playing as black. Tried it for awhile but it seems like it's one of those "equalize first, counterplay later (maybe)" openings which don't really suit me. I prefer a more immediately dynamic approach a la the Benko.

I thought about the Modern Benoni and Blumenfeld Gambit but again those are very easy to avoid.

That brings me to the King's Indian. Some similarities of structure and theme with the benko, very dynamic, and can be played against practically any move order. I've ordered "Understanding the King's Indian" by Golubev and Bologan's new KID repertoire book as well. I hope this will fill the many many holes that have persisted in my black queen pawn repertoire for far too long.

» posted in My Chess Life

| 124 reads | 2 comments

Comments:

by ericmittens - 3 months ago
London, ON Canada

Member Since: Sep 2007
Member Points: 1848

Hmmm...I hadn't really considered the Noteboom seriously! There are some lectures available at www.chesslecture.com on the opening so maybe I'll have a quick look see. Really though, I am trying to avoid the ridiculously popular (for good reason!) slav family as 1) Everyone and his mother plays it 2) Most people in my area pussy out with the exchange slav as white 3) I want to have something more "benko-like" so transpositional possibilities and move order trickery/faking out my benko-expecting opponents can occur.

Still, I'll have a wee look at the noteboom and maybe I'll fall in love.

by Gonnosuke - 3 months ago
Southern California Germany

Member Since: Feb 2008
Member Points: 2557

Have you ever tried the Noteboom? It's not something you can base your repertoire on since white can easily dodge the bullet with 4.e3 but it's double edged and features a pawn charge up the a/b files that's incredibly fun to play. It seems like both players are simultaneously on the verge of winning and losing the entire game. A truly great opening in my opinion. In CC games I'd estimate that half of my attempts to play it are successful. I'm not sure if that statistic would hold up OTB or not.

The Noteboom is only 1...d5 opening I know of that allows black to fight for the full point from the outset. It's this last characteristic that gave me the impetus to revamp my queens pawn repertoire with the sole purpose of trying to maximize the number of opportunities I have to play it. The downside is that if white avoids it you're probably stuck in the Slav complex. My personal feeling is that the Noteboom is so strong/fun that it's worth a few boring Slav games along the way.

If you're interested in learning more about it message me your email address and I'll send over a Chessbase db with annotated games, surveys etc.

P.S.

I've heard good things about Bologan's KID book.

^ Back to top