Beat the Kid: Three Lines Against the King's Indian [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

The King's Indian Defence (KID)is not as popular at the very highest level as it was during the 90s. At least not yet...
However, it has always been extremely popular at the club level, and if anything is becoming MORE popular thanks to the efforts of such players as Bologan, Grischuk, Topalov, and of course Radjabov. Now that the world's elite are playing the KID with growing frequency, if you start with 1.d4 (or just about any closed system) you simply MUST be prepared to face the King's Indian.

It leads to play that is often sharp, double-edged, and infamously complicated for both players. To help White players deal with this monster, Markos offers three different weapons to choose from when facing the KID. I think its worth mentioning right at the start that he is not offering a complete overview of ALL lines available to White. There are no "early deviations" covered nor lines such as the exchange, the fianchetto, the Petrosian, the Samisch, etc. Rather than giving a narrow or basic overview, Markos gives the reader three well-analyzed choices and leaves it up to your personal taste as to which weapon to incorporate into your repertoire. It is also an excellent book to prepare these critical lines as Black.

To start with, Markos gives the positional Krasenkow variation (early h3)and while he cannot claim that White keeps an edge, he is certainly safe from the hair-raising complications you often see in the KID and the white king (and player?) feels a lot more at ease than usual. The play here is much quieter and this might be rather disturbing for those black players hell-bent on attacking your king. White supports his broad center and hopes kill all of black's counterplay with well-timed prophylaxis.

Next he covers the old mainline with 9.Ne1, which he calls the Korchnoi variation (and for good reason). This system is for those that wish to fight fire with fire.
Basically, White achieves a positionally winning game on the queenside, and hopes to repel Black's kingside attack to bring home the full point. This is full-blooded chess!
I have no doubt that White is better in these lines and is often up quite a bit on material.
However it can be VERY stressful to have to weather the storm and one slip on the kingside really can lead to a crushing attack. In fact, my chess coach (a 2600+ GM) said that while he thinks White is better objectively, he still prefers to avoid all the stress of calculating whether he is mated or not! That said, the lines Markos gives in this chapter are fantastic, and offers White players a great roadmap to an edge out of the opening. Personally, I found these lines the most entertaining. Out of all the lines in the book, the Korchnoi is the most ambitious as well as the most dangerous to handle. There are some impressive tactical fireworks to be seen, and the play can be fantastically complicated, but I have no doubt that this line offers White the most winning chances for a well-prepared player.

Finally, he covers the very popular Bayonet (9.b4) which many consider to be THE variation which drove the KID away from top chess. Vladimir Kramnik in particular had such a huge score with this system as White that basically everyone (such as Kasparov, Topalov, Shirov, etc) stopped playing the KID against against him for years and years. The play is more ambitious than the Krasenkow but it is also not as tactical or chaotic as the Korchnoi. That said, it does seem that black can pretty much force an endgame in the mainline of the Bayonet. But its an endgame where I prefer White (as does Markos). He gives the reader more than enough preparation to play this line at a very high level. the play here is more positional in nature and less likely to end up in a mating attack against your king, but it can be difficult to play as the some of the ideas are very long-term and complex. I think its a perfect, balanced approach to the KID that isn't boring but won't give you a heart attack either.

In conclusion, this book gives 3 completely different ways of playing against the KID. It gives a very nice overview of the ideas behind the varied approaches as well as a fantastic snapshot of the current theory in these critical lines. Most importantly, his analysis is objective and fair. In fact, I was talking to an International Master who said that he actually found the book very beneficial for his preparation as black! Markos gives the best moves for both colors (including some new ideas) and therefore its an excellent book for both sides of this popular opening.
For example, this is by far the best book to date on the Bayonet. Oh, and by the way, if you ARE interested the fianchetto variation as White, I highly recommend Avrukh's GM series volume 2.

5 stars!

I have many books on various chess openings, but this is one of the best. The writing is excellent, and material both detailed and easily digestible, and the repertoire choices varied. Often does a repertoire book give you three complete overviews of different systems against one opening? If you play or want to play any of the three systems outlined in this book, this volume is a must. As far as I know, it is also the only detailed work on the Bayonet attack on paper ( I say on paper to exclude chess publishing.com). I have started playing the Krasenkow variation after going over it using this book, and it has already brought a very fine and relatively effortless win in OTB play, not to mention good success in online speed. Highly recommended if you have trouble facing the King's Indian (which I think we all do). The only complaint I have is that two of the lines examined, the Classical and the Bayonet, are rather similar in that they necessitate a attacking on opposite wings and require learning quite a bit of theory. Perhaps rather than the Classical a better line to include for variety's sake would have been the Fianchetto, which tends to lead to positions that are unlike those in the other two variations covered.

One final note: I still haven't gotten a book from Quality Chess Publishing that wasn't excellent. They're worth the premium prices they charge. I hope they have enough financial success to keep producing such exceptional work, and I also hope they continue to bring us talented new authors such as Jan Markos.