How many of these games I can play in the KID before I die of a heart attack

The King’s Indian Defense (KID for short) was popularized by the Ukrainians, notably David Bronstein, Isaak Boleslavsky and Yefim Geller in the 1940s and 1950s. It became very popular then. In fact, in one of the most famous tournaments in chess history, the Zurich 1953 Candidates’ Tournament (immortalized by the book The Chess Struggle in Practice by Bronstein and Vainstein), you will note that one-fifth of the games played opened with the King’s Indian.

In more recent times, though, the opening fell into a bit of hard times. King’s Indian players included Kasparov, Gelfand, Judit Polgar, van Wely, Svidler and Topalov, yet if you search your database, you will be hard-pressed to find a single KID game, featuring one of these players as Black, in the last five years.

Quoting from a Q&A Kasparov gave in 2001, on giving up the KID:

“It’s a difficult opening, positionally it’s very difficult. It’s not fresh anymore. The KID is one of those openings where you have to play only the King’s Indian just to defend the position in different lines. For example, I play the Najdorf. It’s tough, but I spend all my time analyzing it and I’m confident that I can play it with white or black with excellent results. But it’s hard to play anything else.

“I could play other openings against 1.e4, but if you play the Najdorf you have to concentrate on it, and when you play the KID you have to concentrate on that. On a practical level it’s a very tough call. I did it in the early ’90s, playing both the Najdorf and the KID, but I have more faith in the Najdorf. It creates more counter-chances for black. In the King’s Indian these days white has already established the right patterns. Whatever they play, b4 or other lines, you just can’t win. Basically, what’s the point of having so much trouble when white can play the first twenty moves without risk?

“Years ago I had great scores with the King’s Indian, but now there’s little danger for white. Now I can play the Queen’s Gambit and get a reasonable position. Even if it’s a draw, like with Piket and Van Wely in Corus this year, I can push for a win and I don’t have to suffer so much in the opening.”

Nowadays there are just a few of the elite players who still wheel out the King’s Indian. The highest-rated would be Azeri GM Teimour Radjabov. There is also former FIDE World Champion Uzbek GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who has actually come out with a DVD to convince you that not only is there nothing wrong with the King’s Indian, but it remains one of the most dangerous defences for the 1.d4 player to face (or so the DVD tells us).

The Greek GM Vasilios Kotronias is very dangerous with the KID, but the one making the headlines now is the American Champion Hikaru Nakamura, who has defeated three of the world’s best players in this line: Boris Gelfand, Vladimir Kramnik and now the reigning world champion Viswanathan Anand. Nakamura twitted after the game: “Live by the sword and die by the sword. I wonder how many of these games I can play in the KID before I die of a heart attack.”

More here.