Nice one! I missed the force of the irony even despite your handle and the bottom strapline. Doh! -- wake up Ayton! ...

Leucky wrote on 04/20/10 at 20:59:05:


I have some doubts. The explanations in the volumes of this series are not very systemetical. But as Suetin understood a couple of things about chess they surely won't harm either. They just might be not enough.

An excellent start is probably playing through the games played by Vasily Smyslov. I know someone on this site who will approve wholeheartedly. For the Benoni Fianchetto Kortchnoi is probably da man. He also played quite a few fianchetto's against the KID. Karpov like to play the fianchetto against the Grünfeld.

I think memorization of lines in these openings is of little use below master level. I think it is much more effective to study complete games typical of middlegames in this opening. I wouldn't start with the modern main lines of the Panno for instance. I'd first look at annotated games from the past and it might help to see some historical development of the lines as your opponents will probably play older lines with plausible moves that have been replaced by modern lines. A lot of people below master level don't encounter these lines often, so you'll probably be out of "book" pretty quickly in most of your games. It's much more important here to understand the role of prophylaxis in the resulting middlegames. A lot of books like Janjgava's end many variations with "+/=" or even "+/-" without explanation. At 1700 level, if you know just a little bit of theory, it probably won't be very difficult to reach a "+/=" position, since your opponents will likely not study the most critical lines and White tends to have a stable advantage otherwise. IMO what's more important is knowing how to convert an advantageous position out of the opening. Without an understanding of prophylaxis, White can easily lose his advantage with natural moves. To understand prophylaxis, you need to understand your opponent's ideas. Bronsteins's handling of the King's Indian in the g3 lines might be a good place to start. Sometimes a good understanding of model game like Karpov-Timman, Montreal 1979 can really go a long way even if someone does not know the precise theory. (Although it is a fianchetto Pirc, it is a very instructive game and there are similar themes in the fianchetto KID.)

Although Donaldson's book A Strategic Opening Repertoire did not include the Fianchetto KID (it focused on English lines with d3 versus the KID), I liked the concept behind the book for learning typical middlegames resulting from openings like this. The theme of the book is setups involving Nf3, g3, Bg2, and c4, so you might want to look into that book for a strategic introduction to similar positional approaches in the opening. It has recently been updated with co-authorship by Hansen, so it's no longer out-of-print. Another book like this is the much older ZOOM 001 by Zeuthen and Larsen, but it is much harder to find.

I tend not to agree with a lot of statements about the "rating ranges" of an opening. Chess is still chess after all, no matter the rating of the players. Any opening you grow strong with will serve you well in the future. (e.g. The French is not an easy opening to play, but if you intentionally avoid French structures when they naturally arise in other openings, you may be handicapping yourself in the long run.) These fianchetto systems can be learned progressively as one's understanding of chess develops. For instance, some may wish to start with the less critical e3 systems in the Fianchetto KID where there is less theory to learn. IIRC Vaganian has several instructive games in these lines. I think it is better to play something "above" your level than intentionally limit yourself with repetitive systems that stunt development. For one, I think the latter approach hinders creativity and dulls one's enjoyment of the game.

A bit unlucky really that two previous books on the Fianchetto King's Indian, by McNab and Janjgava, are both infamous for resembling the phone book, with as little prose and explanation as possible!

Maybe the publishers agree with Markovich and Smyslov_Fan that the Fianchetto is too sophisticated for amateurs?

Actually, the best source for wordy explanations of the various fianchetto lines is probably in the subscription sections of ChessPublishing!

If you insist on books, Gallagher's Starting Out: King's Indian and Pinski's Benko book have some useful explanations of the g3 lines in those openings that shoud be useful for both white and black players. There is also Martin's "King's Indian Battle Plans" which I think uses much of the same material he had on ChessPublishing.

Markovich wrote on 04/20/10 at 15:30:04:

If this were true I should have the understanding of a GM by now!  My shelf is full of excellent and not-so-excellent chess books. My method in most cases is buy, browse occasionally, and don't remember much...

Seriously, I agree Avrukh's book can be used as low as 1700. For example: 

- Play blitz games online and look up the theory afterwards, comparing with your own thoughts.

- Start by studying only the main lines (in bold) and read Avrukh's text comments; ignore sidelines until you have faced them in a game.

- If you want to memorize lines, set a limit at maybe move 12 or 15 and ignore lines beyond that point. Most of the Fianchetto KID and Grünfeld is calm and non-forcing enough that you can get away with this, certainly on 1700 level.

I haven't seen any book like your description, Leucky. Wojo's weapons vol 2 could be on fianchetto KID and Grünfeld and should have a fair amount of explanations. Not written yet, though!!

I would try to find some "hero" through database searches and see if I also could find his/her analysis of the games.

Hi,

I looked at the fianchetto lines against the KID-, Grünfeld- and Benoni-Complex in my gereral opening book ("fundamental chess openings" by GM van der Sterren) and i like them. After some test i would like to study them further.

Now i would like to buy a repertoire book where these lines are included. My favorites are books like Cox's "starting out 1.d4!" and McDonald's "how to play against 1.e4". In these books there is much explanation text and games. So i would prefer this style.

But at my dealer i don't find any book that fits. The best hit is Boris Avrukh's "1. d4 Volume 2". But i'm afraid if this is a good book for me, because i'm only rated 1700. 

Any suggestions? Maybe there are some good older book which could i get used?