Zwischenzugzwang wrote on 02/17/12 at 19:39:33:
Thanks a lot for your comments!
I'm not sure yet what to decide for, I'm somewhere between the Averbakh, Petrosian, Gligoric and Seirawan variations. Following Seeley's suggestion, I've ordered the KI's Dangerous Weapons and will hopefully get it on Monday, so that might make it easier for me to decide which way to go.
Of all the variations mentioned, the Petrosian leads to the most typical King's Indian structures!? For me that's a very good reason to decide for that, although the Gligoric and the Averbakh statistics seem to be more promising ...
So if you have any other suggestions or arguments speaking for or against those variations, please don't hesitate to tell me!
Best regards,
Zwischenzugzwang
I hope you enjoy and are inspired by Flear's Averbakh chapters in Dangerous Weapons, Zwischenzugzwang. Just to avoid you being put off before you've even started, I thought I'd mention that the hair-raising line in the first game of the first Averbakh chapter ('Cramp and Provoke') can be easily avoided by retreating the B to e3 rather than f4, transposing straight into the more sedate second game.
Also, I disagree with the assertion made earlier in this thread that the Averbakh leads to a wide variety of pawn structures. The way I handle the line is to play d5 as soon as ...e5 is played, so I always get the standard blocked-centre KID pawn structure. Of course, Black can play ...c5 instead of ...e5, or even aim for ...c6 ...a6 and ...b5, but don't forget that this is equally true in most other lines of the KID. Certainly these options are open to Black before you even reach the Petrosian, so you aren't actually avoiding any alternative pawn structures by choosing the Petrosian over the Averbakh. Another virtue of the Averbakh over the Petrosian (and other early Nf3 lines) is that Black is prevented from playing the annoying 6...Bg4, following up with ...Nfd7 and then either ...c5 or ...e5, concentrating pressure against the square d4. This setup is slightly frowned upon by theory, I think it's fair to say, but there's nothing remotely resembling a refutation and it sets White some quite unusual problems for the KID. People who play this as Black tend to know it well, and if you want a standard-ish KID position, you won't get it here!
Anyway, I hope this is of some help. Please do let us know what you decide in the end.