The Ultimate King's Indian Attack: Improve Your Results by Playing This Powerful Opening System: Improve Your Results with This Powerful Modern Opening [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Let us be clear on what the King's Indian Attack is not. It is no miracle opening, which will promise you a clear advantage against best play for Black. However, even if you are a professional chess player, and you have time to learn the latest theory concerning (for example) all replies to 1.e4, your search for a clear opening advantage against players of equal strength and knowledge is likely to lead to disappointment. I am a FIDE 2360 player ("Geof" on ICC) who personally dreads studying openings (like many chess players, I have a job and a life in which chess plays a small but not insignificant part) and who would rather spend what limited time I have to study chess on studying endgames and tactics.

What the King's Indian Attack does offer you is an opening in which understanding of key King's Indian themes and positions, as opposed to rote memorization, and the existence of a variety of viable options for White, will provide you with opportunities for creating positions, often asymmetrical and double-edged, which you understand better than your opponent. It is an opening which has been employed by players of the highest level, which is unquestionably sound, and which abounds in strategic and tactical subtleties. You could do worse.

I have been playing the King's Indian for many years (15+) and, although my knowledge of the latest developments in main-line theory may be lacking, I believe I have a fairly good understanding of many of the standard King's Indian structures. When I started playing the King's Indian Attack as White several years ago, I was pleasantly surprised at the way in which my understanding of the King's Indian as Black translated into an understanding of many of the themes of the King's Indian Attack as White.

The above is in the way of an introduction to my review of Angus Dunnington's book "The Ultimate King's Indian Attack." I personally found that this book to be an excellent combination of theoretical lines, strategic insights, and (last but not least) some very nice games. While it appears to me to be targeted, in terms of analysis, to players of the 2000+ level who have some familiarity with King's Indian positions, I also believe that weaker players (or those less familiar with the King's Indian) will find it rewarding if they spend the time to closely examine the complete games that are included and Dunnington's excellent notes.

If you want an opening repertoire which will lead to many victories straight out of the opening, I suggest you choose 1.e4 and spend the 4 or 5 years of full-time study (if you are a reasonably strong player) which are necessary to give you a solid understanding of all the possible defenses thereto. If you want a flexible opening for which you can achieve the same level of understanding in a small fraction of that time, but which is nevertheless replete with tense and tricky positions, you cannot do better than choose the King's Indian Attack. And, in my personal opinion, Dunnington's book is the best one to have been written on this opening. I highly recommend it.

- Geof Strayer