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Very Hot Topic (More than 25 Replies) King's Indian books (Read 29161 times)
Markovich
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Re: King's Indian books
Reply #29 - 03/03/07 at 19:46:18
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I went out yesterday and bought a copy of Gallagher's KID Starting Out book.  It's a very good overview and introduction, I think.  I maintain my view that if you're playing very serious chess, books don't help much except with broad ideas.  For all else, you need a database.
  

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Re: King's Indian books
Reply #28 - 03/02/07 at 17:46:08
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I have yet to get  Golubev's work but my KID library consists of Gallagher's Starting Out: KID, Play the KID, Marovic's Play the KID, Dzindi's KID video,  Martin's ABC's of the KID dvd, & his book KID Battleplans.

All are great but I think Martin's stuff here is very underrated. The ABC's dvd is fantastic for beginners and vetrans alike...a good refresher. TheKID Battleplans is nothing more then games collections featuring the KID. I found this work to be a treasure trove of different ideas and again if you want to learn the KID you can't go wrong playing over as many master level KID games as you can!
  
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Markovich
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Re: King's Indian books
Reply #27 - 03/02/07 at 11:54:56
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SniperOnG7 wrote on 02/05/06 at 22:18:51:
Talking about Gallagher's books... Does anyone has his one on the Samisch because I am curious about which systems he examine in it. Huh


And here I thought g7 was a dark square.

I myself have Geller's two-volume KID set.  It's no longer up-to-date, but it's a useful overview.  You can't rely on books much any more for theory.  You have to have a database.
  

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Geof_Strayer
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Re: King's Indian books
Reply #26 - 03/02/07 at 03:48:28
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Gallagher's and Golubev's books are excellent.  They are both devotees of the King's Indian and have a lot to say that is interesting and insightful.

For a slightly different approach to the King's Indian, "King's Indian Defence, Modern Practice" by Alexander Kalinin is an interesting book.  When I first saw this book I thought it was basically a database dump with a bit of annotation thrown in to conceal that fact.  Maybe something that would have been very useful in the 80s, but which no serves any purpose in these days of ChessBase and ChessAssistant.  However, after spending a little time with the book I have changed my mind.

There is almost no textual explanation in this book and it is somewhat out of date (published in 1999, the vast majority of the games are from the 90's).  It contains 451 King's Indian games, organized by opening, lightly annotated in Informator style.  The annotations range from just a few comments in an entire game, to relatively thorough analysis of some games.  They are probably no better (and, some cases, probably not as thorough) as those you could find in ChessBase.  But Kalinin's rather minimalistic approach is applied fairly intelligently, and he often has some interesting comments (I guess I should say symbols) at the critical points.  I kind of like the approach where the annotator points out the most important or difficult points but generally leaves you to figure the rest out for yourself, although this probably would not be to everyone's taste.

There are two things, IMO, that give Kalinin's book some value and prevent it from being a database dump.  First, the games appear to have been chosen as much for their quality and demonstration of typical plans and themes as their theoretical interest.   The game selection is excellent, with many games from the top King's Indian players of the 90's.  (I just opened the book at a random point and found the games D. Komarov-Kiril Georgiev, Gleizerov-Nunn, Khalifman-Nijboer, and Kasparov-Smirin, a not unrepresentative sample of the level of games in this book.)  The selection of games for their instructive value seems quite well done, and I haven't got the feeling (at least so far) going through them that any of the games were included just as "filler."  

Second, Kalinin uses a "TM" symbol (stands for "Typical Method") when a particularly instructive or common manoever is played, and I am finding this to be very useful.  Many of the games (I am guessing less than half but probably more than a third of the games, although I haven't done a count and might be way off) have the TM sybmol in them, and I find that it serves as a useful signal that something particularly useful is coming up and to pay special attention.  Although it didn't strike me as being much when I first looked at this book (just this stupid TM symbol evey now and then), I have come to believe that it is quite a helpful feature and makes this book particularly useful for learning King's Indian themes/ideas.  (There is even a little self-test of 50 positions at the end that contain classic King's Indican combinations for both Black and White.)

I like Kalinin's book as a "understanding-based" approach to learning the King's Indian.  I wouldn't call it an exceptionally good book; it's not.  It's a useful book for someone trying to learn to how to play (or more about playing) in the "style" of the King's Indian, who wants to develop his/her "feeling" for typical King's Indian positions and general understanding of the theory, and who doesn't mind working at it a bit.  I find the games rather heavy going (top players, tough battles, difficult opening, and light annotations) and as a result I only look at the book when I am in the mood to make some effort.  But I also feel that I am learning some useful things. All in all, not a bad little book, and I think it as a part of the "Teach Yourself In Chess Openings" series it achieves its goals.

However, if you are looking for a cutting edge up-to-date presentation of theory presented in a more digestible format, Golubev's excellent book is definitely a better option.

          - Geof
  
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Glenn Snow
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Re: King's Indian books
Reply #25 - 02/10/07 at 08:22:32
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Haven't been able to get any details on it but noticed Everyman was going to be publishing a book called The Classical King's Indian Uncovered.  Here's the link where I saw it: http://www.amazon.com/Classical-Kings-Indian-Uncovered/dp/1857445171/sr=8-16/qid....

  
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Re: King's Indian books
Reply #24 - 07/14/06 at 00:44:24
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Greetings,

Ward's book on the Saemisch is given a good review on Silman's site et al.

As for KID books - http://www.chess-books-online.com/king's-indian-defence/ - gives a reasonable list, most recent first. It seems to be a good site!

Also, in general, I normally use www.bookbrain.co.uk for locating the cheapest prices for a book - use the ISBN finder, it's the most accurate. If Amazon isn't included in the list of suppliers, check it out directly - sometimes it's missed out - and cheaper!

I don't know if there's an equivalent to BookBrain in the US...!?

Kindest regards,

James
  
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Re: King's Indian books
Reply #23 - 02/12/06 at 18:39:00
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I agree with Alias about the .pdf introductions - I ordered that Sicilian book from Chess Stars based on the introduction.   If you look at the US amazon site it's got exceprts from Gallagher's Play the King's Indian book which might prove useful.
  
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Re: King's Indian books
Reply #22 - 02/10/06 at 21:33:03
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Perhaps needless to say, it would be nice if someone who obtains Golubev's book could post a brief rundown of MG's recommendations (I assume it's a repertoire-type book).  In the Saemisch, I would tend to play 6...Nc6 against 6. Be3 and 6...c5 against 6. Bg5, but it seems more likely that Golubev (or perhaps any repertoire book) would recommend 6...c5 against both, as Gallagher does.  It should be interesting to compare Golubev's various recommendations/preferences to Gallagher's.
  
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Re: King's Indian books
Reply #21 - 02/10/06 at 08:48:41
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In this particular thread, we are discussing books.  I would love to discuss the Mar de Plata variation, but I think we should take that to the appropiate thread, the Mar de Plata thread.  Bring your questions over there and I will join you.

Angry
  

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Re: King's Indian books
Reply #20 - 02/10/06 at 07:30:17
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I thought it was appropriate to post here. Since someone else asked about that particuar line, in this exact thread. And I play KID for white. So even though I know that 13. ...a5 is "best", I still have an interest in knowing the details of 13. ...Ng6 etc.
  
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Re: King's Indian books
Reply #19 - 02/10/06 at 01:40:10
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I think this issue belongs on another thread.  Here we are talking about books.  If we want to delve into specific lines, I think we should go to those threads.  I talk about this issue, the 13.a4 move, in another thread and I still maintain that 13... a5 is the best or most critical counter.  I have also mentioned that 13.... Rf6 (with idea of ...Rh6) is on the rise and being experimented with, which can only help things for 13... a5 since I feel that whatever you can do with ...Rf6, you can do with 13...  a5 first.

Check the Mar de Plata variation thread and/or others.

Angry
  

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Re: King's Indian books
Reply #18 - 02/10/06 at 01:13:39
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Quote:
The problem with KID books is that Theory changes too fast : I have the 2 volumes of Nunn & Burgess , but I must see they are becoming obsolete
An example :
In Taimanov variation , after
9 Ne1 Nd7
10 Be3 f5
11 f3 f4
12 Bf2 g5
13 a4 Ng6
14 a5 Kh8
N&B consider only 15 Nd3 , and forget completely 15 Nb5
that looks as a refutation of 14..Kh8 , after 15...Nf6
16 Nxa7
In my databases I find 16...g4!( ! is from the database)
17 Nxc8  but there is only a line , without any game as example : 
What does Gallagher say about this line?
I analysed this line but I find Black compensation as insufficient ,and I can't understand the ! of my database
In my mind 14..Kh8 is definitely refuted
What do you think about it?


I just got the Nunn/Burgess book (used) that covers this info. The 13. a4 line is the one I am interested in, so I was wondering what the exact line given for 16 ...g4! was in your database. My initial thoughts are:
White plays Na7 so that he can snap up the light squared bishop, which in turn gives him additional options when defending on the kingside. For example, white can play h3 in some lines without fearing Bxh3. Now, one point of 15. ...Nf6 is to clear the d7 square for the bishop, so that after 16. Nxa7 Bd7, the bishop is not traded so easily. The chessbase online database has a few games that continue: 17. c5 g4 18. c6 bxc6 19. Nxc6, and now black is compelled to play ...Bxc6. So the bishop is traded for the knight after all, unless someone can improve for black along the way. By the way, it seems to me that black gets a pretty strong attack, even in that case.  So with this in mind, maybe 16. ...g4! is considered better, because the bishop is going to be exchanged anyway, so why not continue the k-side attack?

Anyway go ahead and clue me in on why this particular line is so bad for black. It doesn't look any worse than the other 13. a4 lines in my opinion.
  
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Re: King's Indian books
Reply #17 - 02/09/06 at 17:30:56
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I would not compare a starting out book with Golubev's book.  It is for two different audiences.  The starting out book by Gallagher is for those who are starting out in the KID or in a specific variation and need an overview of a quick guide.  Golubev's book is written for those of us who are ready to devour the details and nuances of the variations and those of us who have already a bit more experience.   That's my opinion.

Undecided
  

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Re: King's Indian books
Reply #16 - 02/09/06 at 17:18:24
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Thx to Alias for providing a link to an excerpt of the Gobulev book.
I did compare the contents to coverage of the Nd2 variation in
Starting Out The Kings Indian. My findings:
The coverage of ideas and typical manoevres is far better in SOTKI.
The Gobulev book has more games and detail, and is probably more
up to date.
But I am not sure that the detailed coverage outweights the clear explanations of Galagher for those who have a limited time to study variations and need a good compass in a pratical game. At least not till your rating is 2000+.

Even then you should do well to compare the Gobulev-book with Galaghers other book on the KI, which also provides more detailed variations but still retains a lot of practical advice.
  
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Re: King's Indian books
Reply #15 - 02/09/06 at 16:40:23
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He wrote, "...objectively ...c6 is more critical".   As for me,  as long as he covers the lines AND he does provide an index of variations, it is all right.  I can find what I am looking for.
  

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