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Very Hot Topic (More than 25 Replies) "Beat the King's Indian" by Jan Markos (Read 106882 times)
sloughter
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Re: "Beat the King's Indian" by Jan Markos
Reply #35 - 01/11/09 at 12:37:35
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Why isn't White simply winning in the King's Indian with the Saemisch? This is the only major opening by White where he simply carves out controlled space in the opening i.e. all of his pieces are in back of his pawns. What if White just plays something like c4/d4/Nc3/e4/f3/Be3/g3/Bg2/Nh3/Nf2/Nd3, push his Queenside pawns, rearrange his pieces behind his pawn wall, and just wait for the right moment to open the position with a winning Classical attack, complete with sacrifices, etc.?Jacob Aagaard wrote on 12/15/08 at 15:59:21:
The main contributions to theory are in the 6.h3 chapter and the Korchnoi chapters as far as I can see.

I don't think the title is misleading. How often are people playing the Glek variation and how much do you need to know to play against it?

Clearly Avrukh has spent more energy on finding new ideas, but I personally find Markos coverage interesting. We are not putting it forward as book of the year, but we are not certainly embarrassed about it as well.

  
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Re: "Beat the King's Indian" by Jan Markos
Reply #34 - 01/03/09 at 01:41:49
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Keano wrote on 12/30/08 at 17:06:03:
I go along with what some previous reviewers have said - this book is basically nothing special - at times the author goes out of his way not to make a decision as to the best continuations, and tries to cover too much material in not enough depth. Not up to usual Quality Chess standard - sorry if sounds harsh, but trying to be objective.


Perhaps a better title would have been [url]Trying to Beat the King's Indian[/url], although admittedly it doesn't sound as catchy.
FYI.....any book with the heading Beat the in the title, is bound to be a let down, unless of course it is followed by the words Kings Gambit, Blackmar Diemer or Latvian etc.  Tongue

But seriously though, I can honestly say as a KID player for many years that I have not seen anything past or present that comes even  close to threatening the existence of it, both the Classical for  Vegetarians with 7...Na6 and the Meat eaters variety with 7...Nc6 are both in good shape as far as I can tell.  

Curiously the three systems offered by Markos are definitely not for everyone, and liable to get many White players mated unless they have an exceptional defensive grasp, strong nerves, and a highly developed sense of danger. Think I'm kidding..... take a look at the important game  Roussel Roozmon, T vs Charbonneau, P - 2008 played towards the end of last year and featuring the fearsome Roll Eyes Bayonet Attack, where Charbonneau improves on the already promising analysis given in Golubev's Understanding the KID and in so doing blew a hole in Khalifman's recommendation in Opening For White According to Kramnik the size of a crater!!.

I had intended to include the above mentioned game with extensive notes and guidelines, in a Matemax inspired KID update I was preparing to submit, had the crisis with that section not soon been resolved. Of course there is no guarantee that Tony would have accepted it, either way the work was not wasted, as I managed to unearth quite a bit during the analytical process and learnt a lot along the way.  

The KID is alive and well, and its comforting to know that not only Radjabov is making important contributions to its theory.

Toppy Smiley

  

The man who tries to do something and fails is infinitely better than he who tries to do nothing and succeeds - Lloyd Jones Smiley
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Re: "Beat the King's Indian" by Jan Markos
Reply #33 - 01/02/09 at 11:32:10
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I don't know - I looked at the Ne1 section and found it quite instructive and interesting, although maybe that's because I knew nothing about it to start with. He seems to share his own views and ideas quite freely, and the same in the h3 section. The Bayonet section struck me as weaker, and moves that aren't 6...e5 and 7...Nc6 are certainly taken at a bit of a canter.

It is slightly curious to be offering three separate repertoires for White, but maybe that's modern chess at a database/laptop level - you just can't play the same way every time.

It seems to me that if someone wanted to prepare seriously for the KID this would be a pretty good place to start. Sometimes purporting to give all the answers isn't the best thing. And for what it's worth I found the author's tone rather engaging.
  
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Re: "Beat the King's Indian" by Jan Markos
Reply #32 - 12/30/08 at 17:06:03
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I go along with what some previous reviewers have said - this book is basically nothing special - at times the author goes out of his way not to make a decision as to the best continuations, and tries to cover too much material in not enough depth. Not up to usual Quality Chess standard - sorry if sounds harsh, but trying to be objective.
  
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ANDREW BRETT
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Re: "Beat the King's Indian" by Jan Markos
Reply #31 - 12/26/08 at 10:56:02
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had a look at this the other day- can't say it blew me away - seems very much a round up of developments which is useful but I didn't see too much original analysis in the ne1 and bayonet lines- 6 h3 seems to be the best section.
  
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Jacob Aagaard
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Re: "Beat the King's Indian" by Jan Markos
Reply #30 - 12/19/08 at 19:04:40
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I should maybe say that each publisher is only allowed to put forward 2 books for BOTY!

I am in no way putting Markos down. I personally enjoyed the book quite a bit, but I am not going to hype our own books - unless provoked. I think our job is just to answer questions and learn from the many knowledgeable people in here.

Jacob Aagaard
Jacob@qualitychess.co.uk
  
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Re: "Beat the King's Indian" by Jan Markos
Reply #29 - 12/17/08 at 21:29:53
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Jacob Aagaard wrote on 12/15/08 at 15:59:21:
The main contributions to theory are in the 6.h3 chapter and the Korchnoi chapters as far as I can see.

I don't think the title is misleading. How often are people playing the Glek variation and how much do you need to know to play against it?

Clearly Avrukh has spent more energy on finding new ideas, but I personally find Markos coverage interesting. We are not putting it forward as book of the year, but we are not certainly embarrassed about it as well.



You should not be to hard on the author. For players <2000 ELO it should be a great book, because the explanations are very good and such players - like me - should be well prepared to play the special variation they choose.

This is especially true fpr the chapter about the Krasenkow - Variation, which was my reason to buy the book. Main problem for better players might be, that covering 3 systems in one book means not going deep.

If you wanted the author to go for the "book of the year" price" you should have made him work exclusively on the h3-variation!
  
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Re: "Beat the King's Indian" by Jan Markos
Reply #28 - 12/16/08 at 19:10:58
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as it often analyses more than one variation in every system there may be more than 3 choices vs KID!
  
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Re: "Beat the King's Indian" by Jan Markos
Reply #27 - 12/16/08 at 14:50:27
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I liked the book. He is analysing the critical lines, offers some suggestions and guides you quite good through the different variations. Also it is not a database dump with full of games from some obsure tournament but he just gives the important games and ideas, which you have to remember .
I compared it a little bit to Grivas book"Beating the fianchetto Variations".
There Grivas also analysed the Krasenkov line. But he is mainly giving Variations over Variations. MarKos suits me better, giving the main lines .
My only criticism is that the so called minor lines are covered only briefly. Especially the line with 7...Na6 in the classical Kings Indian is played very often also on international Level.
However I still like the book, and it gives you three choices against the KID.

QualityChess is currently publishing really good books,
I am impressed Mr. Aagard Cool
  
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Re: "Beat the King's Indian" by Jan Markos
Reply #26 - 12/15/08 at 21:59:46
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Got the book, went thorugh a few chapters with silicon help.
In my view it's not going to be remembered in a 100 years but the book is absolutely ok. It explains quite well the current state of affairs in the considered variations explaining ideas quite clearly. It's not packed up of variations and novelties but it does cover most lines with sufficient detail as far as I can see. Only frequent line missing is 6...Nc6 against classical setup as far I as I can see but I guess I'll live without it Cheesy
  
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Re: "Beat the King's Indian" by Jan Markos
Reply #25 - 12/15/08 at 15:59:21
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The main contributions to theory are in the 6.h3 chapter and the Korchnoi chapters as far as I can see.

I don't think the title is misleading. How often are people playing the Glek variation and how much do you need to know to play against it?

Clearly Avrukh has spent more energy on finding new ideas, but I personally find Markos coverage interesting. We are not putting it forward as book of the year, but we are not certainly embarrassed about it as well.
  
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Re: "Beat the King's Indian" by Jan Markos
Reply #24 - 12/13/08 at 10:25:50
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Fans of 'the Korchnoi variation' may appreciate this effort:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1522185

  
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Re: "Beat the King's Indian" by Jan Markos
Reply #23 - 12/11/08 at 12:49:10
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Yesterday I got the book. I looked at it for about one hour, but frankly speaking I am not impressed. I looked especially over the bayonet attack part. I can not see anything new in the variation with 12.f3 - just a couple of well known and hardly commented games in other sources. When I have some spare time i will look over the other parts and will post my final opinion.
  
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Re: "Beat the King's Indian" by Jan Markos
Reply #22 - 12/09/08 at 11:57:37
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I have this books for some days and i have to do the following comment

1) The title is misleading. This books is about 3 KI variations but all the rest is covered in one chapter with no detail at all.

2) I have basically did get a look at the bayonett attack part.
Its not bad it not great. There is nothing new in there. If you know the variation, you will get nothing from the book. If you dont know it, you will get the basic idea.

The book is not big and could have been at least double the pages and content and could only cover the bayonett at that space.

I would rate this book 5/10 (you should take into account that i am always a little bit hard on my critics)
  
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Re: "Beat the King's Indian" by Jan Markos
Reply #21 - 12/05/08 at 15:49:55
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Bibs wrote on 12/05/08 at 14:58:31:
Does the 'Korchnoi' section also include anti-Nbd7, Glek etc? I.e. repertoirish?


EDITED: Actually it is dealt with in a section on its own in the Epilogue and "Loose Ends" chapters.    Really just sub-one line/variation given for each of those (Glek, Power point, etc).  Maybe 4 pages on Be3 after Nbd7, 3 on Glek.  Enough to play the lines.

Bibs wrote on 12/05/08 at 14:58:31:
How does the h3-makagonov coverage compare with that in  the chessbase cd, Grivas anti-indian book?


It is complimentary.


I would not call this repertoire book for beginning KID ers.  It is very good at what it does/offers, but is not a primer for the White side.  

It is specifically the three variations listed, so if one is looking for good ideas in other variations and sub-lines of these three, this book may touch upon them, but does not move its focus too far afield from the three lines already indicated.


There is a good bit of original analysis, and we'll see how that holds up/fares, a lot of well written prose and solid explanations.

It is definitely "a book with an opinion."



Edited 2X:  Content.



« Last Edit: 12/05/08 at 16:53:17 by drkodos »  

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