TN wrote on 04/03/10 at 09:46:36:

I had problem with 9.b4 variation (I played 9....Nh5 or Ne8 and f5 so Nf3 went for e6 etc ).
So I make a little research and I found some variations with 9...a5 that I liked it.
Maybe  black here must be well prepared.
So because of 9.b4 I look also the Na6 variation

I had problems with the 9. b4 variations so I give a try  at 6/7...Na6 variations also.
I liked for black the 9.b4 a5 .

BPaulsen wrote on 04/01/10 at 00:08:27:


Which huge thread are you talking about?

I'm not sure which I found more surprising, the idea that Black is nowhere near equality (perhaps on a par with the Old Indian at best, whereas I am used to seeing them considered equal or unclear with best play), or the idea that the only (or indeed the biggest) problem for White in the h3/Nf3 system is the ...c5 stuff.

I think there are a lot of top GM's that'd pay good money for your analysis of the Fianchetto and h3 lines if they show "nowhere near equality" for Black. Bologan seems to think that Black is equal in both places, and even Avrukh only found += in the Fianchetto, and who knows if that'll hold up.

Petrosian seems to be in the same boat as Korchnoi regarding black's concept in the KID.

On principle it probably `should` be unsound, but theory and practice are different issues.

I can see one of two things happening with the development of Classical KID theory going forward:

#1) White will get a major novelty somewhere in 9. Ne1 that finally gives him the sought-after +=, or failing that 7. Be3 will prove the improved way to go about this classical method of attacking black's set-up. 

However, if those don't work:

#2) White will start changing his approach to refuting the concept of black's set-up, with a more restraining/prophylactic system such as 6. h3, which in many ways attempts to work as an improved Petrosian System (6. Be2 e5 7. d5). This is noteworthy because the Petrosian System at one point caused black substantial problems, meaning that type of approach constriction approach (instead of chaos flank attacks) may ultimately be better.

Who knows...

I'm really torn by the thought that computers like the White side of the Classical KID.  I started playing the white side when I read Petrosian's comment that he thought the KID was fundamentally unsound.  (No, I don't know exactly where it was that I saw it.) This was long before computer analysis was reliable for more than 5 ply!

I do enjoy playing against the KID because it feels like I'm upholding the side of Right and Good, but I don't like supporting the side of an unthinking machine that can't appreciate Black's game.  The KID remains one of the great mysteries for computers, but I do tend to agree with them that White should be better! 

For one thing (speaking of Nakamura games), it is not at all the case that the soundness of the Mar del Plata depends on the "Give Mate or Die Trying" (as a recent NIC Yearbook article put it) approach associated with meeting 9. b4/Nd2 with 9...Ne8/Nd7.