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DAVVIIGDO RITO
EVERYMAN CHESS
www.everymanchess.com
First published in 2010 by Gloucester Publishers plc (formerly Everyman Publishers
pk), North burgh House, 10 Northburgh Street, London EC1 V OAT
Copyright© 2010 David Vigorito
The right of David Vigorito to be identified as the author of this work has been as
serted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
electrostatic, magnetic tape, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior
permission of the publisher.
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978 1 85744 645 6
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Everyman is the registered trade mark of Random House Inc. and is used in this
work under licence from Random House Inc.
This book is dedicated to two people: for my darling wife Heather, for all her love
and support; and for my dear friend Joe Fang.for getting me well on my way in the
King's Indian Defence with many long nights of speed chess back in the olden days. ..
Everyman Chess Series
Chief advisor: Byron Jacobs
Commissioning editor: John Emms
Assistant editor: Richard Palliser
Typeset and edited by First Rank Publishing, Brighton.
Cover design by Horatio Monteverde.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays, Bungay, Suffolk.
Contents
Bibliography 5
Introduction 7
Part I: The Classical Variation
1 d4 lt:Jf6 l c4 g6 3 lt:Jc3 il.g7 4 e4 d6 S lt:Jf3 o-o
6 ii.el es 7 0-0 lt:Jc6 10
1 Mar del Plata Variation: 9 tt:Je1lt:Jd710 tt:Jd3 12
2 Mar del Plata Variation: 9 tt:Je1 lt:Jd7 10 f3 38
3 Mar del Plata Variation: 9 tt:Je1 lt:Jd7 10 .ie3 47
4 Mar del Plata Variation: 9 tt:Jd2 76
s Mar del Plata Variation: 9 b4 tt:Jhs without 10 .:tel 92
6 Mar del Plata Variation: 9 b4 tt:Jhs 10 .!:tel 105
7 Mar del Plata Variation: White's Other 9th Moves 144
8 White's Eighth Move Deviations 156
Part II: The Classical Variation
1 d4 lt:Jf6 l c4 g6 3 lt:Jc3 il.g7 4 e4 d6 S lt:Jf3 o-o
6 ii.el es without 7 o-o 167
9 Gligoric Variation: 7 .ie3 lt:Jg4 8 ii.gs f6 9 ii.cl tt:Jc6, 9 ilh4 tt:Jc6 168
10 Gligoric Variation: 7 .ie3 lt:Jg4 8 ii.gs f6 9 il.h4 gs 184
11 Petrosian Variation: 7 dS as without 8 ii.gs 202
12 Petrosian Variation: 7 dS as 8 ii.gs 222
13 Exchange Variation: 7 dxes dxes 8 '1i'xd8 .l:txd8 238
Part Ill: The Samisch Variation
1 d4 lt:Jf6 2 c4 g6 3 lt:Jc3 .ig7 4 e4 d6 S f3 o-o 6 .ie3 tt:Jc6
7 tt:Jge2 a6 8 '1i'd2 :tbs 264
14 Panno Variation: 9 h4 without 9 ... hs 266
1S Panno Variation: 9 h4 hS 10 o-o-o 273
16 Panno Variation: 9 h4 hS 10 tt:Jc1 293
17 Panno Variation: 9 tt:Jc1 302
18 Panno Variation: 9 0-0-0, 9 .ih6 and 9 g4 320
19 Panno Variation: 9 a3, 9 !:!.bl and 9 .:tel 331
20 Panno Variation: Other lines 344
Index of Variations 364
B.ibliography
Books
6 ... liJc6 in the Sii.[nisch Variation, King's Indian Defense, John Watson (Chess Enter
prises 1982)
Attacking Manual I, Jacob Aagaard (Quality Chess 2008)
Beat the KID, Jan Markos (Quality Chess 2009)
Beating the Anti-King's Indians, Joe Gallagher (Batsford 1996)
Beating the Fianchetto Defences, Efstratios Grivas (Gambit 2006)
Dangerous Weapons: The King's Indian, Richard Palliser, Glenn Flear & Yelena
Dembo (Everyman Chess 2009)
King's Indian Defence: 4 e4, Efim Geller (Batsford 1980)
King's Indian Defence: Ma rdel Plata Variation, Svetozar Gligoric (Bats ford 2003)
My Great Predecessors Part Ill, Garry Kasparov (Everyman Chess 2004)
My Great Predecessors Part IV, Garry Kasparov (Everyman Chess 2005)
Play 1 d4!, Richard Palliser (Batsford 2003)
Play the King's Indian, Joe Gallagher (Everyman Chess 2004)
Starting Out: 1 d4!, John Cox (Everyman Chess 2006)
Starting Out: The King's Indian, Joe Gallagher (Everyman Chess 2002)
The Art of the King's Indian, Eduard Gufeld (Batsford 2002)
The Classical King's Indian Uncovered, Krzysztof Panczyk and Jacek llczuk (Every
man Chess 2009)
The Controversial Sii.misch King's Indian, Chris Ward (Batsford 2004)
The King's Indian: A Complete Black Repertoire, Victor Bologan (Chess Stars 2009)
The King's Indianf or the Attacking Player, Graham Burgess (Batsford 1993)
The Main Line King's Indian, John Nunn & Graham Burgess (Batsford 1996)
The New Classical King's Indian, John Nunn & Graham Burgess (Batsford 1998)
The Sii.misch King's Indian, Joe Gallagher (Batsford 1995)
The Sii.misch King's Indian Uncovered, Alexander Cherniaev and Eduard Prokuronov
(Everyman Chess 2008)
Understanding The King's Indian, Mikhail Golubev (Gambit 2005)
5
Attacking Chess: The King's Indian, Volume 1
Winning with the King's Indian, Eduard Gufeld (Macmillan 1991)
Winning with the King's Indian, Andrew Martin (Caissa 1989)
Periodicals
Chess Informant through Volume 105
New In Chess Magazine through issue 2010/4
New In Chess Yearbook through Volume 94
Electronic Resources
Mega Database 2009 (ChessBase)
The King's Indian, Viktor Bologan (ChessBase 2009)
Chessb ase.com
Chesscafe.com
Chess Lecture.com
Chess Publishing .com
The Week in Chess through issue 815
6
Introduction
The King's Indian Defence is one of the richest openings in all of chess theory.
Black does not play to equalize as he does in the classical defences. Rather he seeks
to unbalance the game from the outset. The last decade has seen a revitalization
of the King's Indian, as even top players are often trying to win with the black
pieces. Compared to the classical openings, the price of each move is quite high
and a mistake by either side can easily lead to disaster.
The King's Indian has always been considered a somewhat risky opening, but
despite that common sentiment, the King's Indian has an impressive pedigree.
While this dynamic system was pioneered in the 1950s by Russian and Yugoslav
players such as David Bronstein, Efim Geller and Svetozar Gligoric, the two big
names that are often attached to the King's Indian are those of its World Cham
pion practitioners, Robert Fischer and Garry Kasparov. Whereas Fischer's retire
ment signalled the end of his King's Indian era, Kasparov gave up our favourite
opening while he was still an active player, which 'indicated' its unsoundness. At
least that was the general feeling after he lost a well-known game in 1997 to
Kramnik in the then dreaded 'Bayonet' system.
In fact Kasparov stated something to the effect that the Sicilian and King's In
dian were too much to keep up with at the level he was playing at, and so he stuck
with the Sicilian while heading for more solid systems in the closed openings.
Nowadays young players are not so worried about this; with advances in technol
ogy many modem talents play both the Sicilian and the King's Indian, as well as
other sharp defences.
Opening fashions come and go. The beginning of the new millennium brought
forward a great new champion of the King's Indian Defence in Teimour Radjabov.
Like Kasparov, Radjabov hails from the city of Baku in Azerbaijan. Radjabov really
took over where Kasparov left off, even scoring well in the aforementioned Bayo
net (see Chapters 5 and 6). Radjabov's success influenced the younger generation
as well as the old guard, and nowadays most of the top players have been found at
one time or another on the black side of the King's Indian.
7
Attacking Chess: The King's Indian, Volume 1
The King's Indian Defence has always been an opening I've felt greatly attached
to. Despite the fact that I have written extensively on the Slav Defences, the King's
Indian was my first real defence to 1 d4. While the King's Indian is considered to
be a 'tactical' opening, I have always considered it to be very strategic in nature. It
is an opening where a feeling for piece placement and pawn structure is very im
portant. There are many thematic ideas and although the opening lends itself to
frequent complications, the tactics have always seemed 'logical' to me. So, while it
is true that when I 'grew up' I began to rely more on the solid Slav systems, it is
always useful to have a sharp weapon available, especially when one really wants
to try to win with Black.
Even though the King's Indian is a complicated opening, I do not think it is so
difficult to learn. For one thing, it is relatively 'move order proof'. That is, the King's
Indian set-up can be employed against 1d4,1c 4, or 1 tt:Jf3. Also, the King's Indian
lends itself to just a handful of pawn structures, so the ideas are easier to assimi
late.
In this book, as well as the second volume, I will generally focus on the main
lines. The reason for this is that I think the best way to learn an opening is to study
the main lines. It is easy to add other secondary systems later. The biggest exam
ple of this is in the Classical Variation, 1 d4 tt:Jf6 2 c4 g6 3 tt:Jc3 .ig7 4 e4 d6 5 lt:Jf3
o-o 6 ile2 es 7 o-o. Here I have gone for what is no doubt the main line, 7 ...tt:J c6.
This is the most uncompromising approach and it is also the most difficult. The
main alternative is 7 ... tt:Ja6. This line is safer, easier to learn and may well be just
as good as 7 ...tt:J c6. In fact, I have played 7 ... tt:Ja6 myself on several occasions. Nev
ertheless, I think it is best for the aspiring King's Indian player to learn the main
lines. One great thing about the King's Indian is its flexibility - if you learn the
main systems, it is easy to expand your repertoire by adding additional lines with
out having to learn a whole new opening.
In the Sa mi sch Variation, 1 d4 tt:Jf6 2 c4 g6 3 tt:Jc3 .ig7 4 e4 d6 5 f3 o-o 6 .ie3,
the main line nowadays is 6 ... cs. This was not always the case, and 6 ...tt:J c6 and
6 ... es used to be considered Black's two main systems. I have elected not to go
with 6 ... cs even though it may well be the best move. While White often steers the
game into a Benoni structure, it is also possible for White to simply grab a pawn
while exchanging queens as well. Modem practice has clearly shown that Black
gets sufficient compensation for the pawn, but some White players are rather well
prepared in these endings. If Black is well prepared too and has a good under
standing of these positions, he should certainly be able to draw, but I believe that
heading into a pawn-down endgame straight out of the opening is probably not
to everyone's taste.
8
Introduction
Moreover, 6 ...c s against the Samisch has been very well covered in modem
King's Indian literature and I did not have a lot to add to what is already outthere,
especially as the lack of popularity of the Samisch at high level has not produced
much fresh material to examine. The classical 6 ... es must still be playable, but I
always thought it was easier to play White in these lines and so decided to go for
the Panno Variation with 6 ... tt:Jc6. This is an uncompromising system that still has
a lot of fresh territory to explore.
Note that the second volume will cover the Fianchetto Variation, the Four
Pawns Attack, the Averbakh and all of White's other tries.
I would like to thank a few people for their help with this book: John Emms, for
suggesting the topic, allowing me to split the book into two parts and for his pa
tience; Richard Palliser, for listening to me rant and rave about various lines that
may or may not have found their way into this book; Joe Fang, for the use of his
impressive library; and Vasik Rajlich, for keeping me well supplied with Rybka 3
and 4. Thanks to you all!
David Vigorito
Somerville, Massachusetts,
October 2010
9
