I bought GM McDonald's book (Kindle) on the KIA published in 2014. GM analysis of games is bound to be highly valuable. That is especially the case here, as the KIA is more about plans than about specific moves. Still, there are some specific lines that I would have liked to have seen. For example after:
1. e4 e6 2. d3 d5 3. Nd2 c5 4. Ngf3 Nc6 5. g3 Bd6 6. Bg2 Nge7 7. O-O O-O 8.Re1 
I would have liked to seen coverage of 8...Qc7, which has been recommended by John Watson.

The book has eight chapters which address both the 1e4 and 1Nf3 move orders. It could have contained an additional chapter addressing the KIA in double king pawn openings. There is the Smyslov system 1e4 e5 2Nc3 Nf6 3g3, and the and Gleck system 1e4 e5 2Nf3 Nc6 3Nc3 Nf6 4g3

Although white can hope for an advantage from the KIA, I think white should be psychologically prepared for an equal middle game, while bypassing tons of theory.

I formerly thought there were various "complete answers" to the KIA. By that I mean that particular moves completely neutralized the KIA when played against the French, or the Caro-Kan, or the Sicilian, or even from the 1Nf3 move order. Perhaps, but perhaps not! On closer inspection, it seems that repertoire books for black promise "equal chances" after a select mover order. That may be OK for white, who may sensibly favor his chances in a familiar position.

Laramonet wrote on 03/12/18 at 20:38:22:


Thanks. I haven't bought the Ntirlis book on the Queen's Gambit, or the Emms or McDonald books on the KIA. It's as much about disk space as about money with my older ASUS Ultrabook.

The idea you describe, with Rfc8 and Qd8 sounds like a good resource for black. At some point the black king will probably need some defensive help.

I have a 2010 version of Stockfish. It tends to overestimate black's chance, having a "show me" attitude towards white's impending king side attack. By the time it sees it, it's too late!

The positions are clearly rich. I imagine many players choose the KIA hoping to get this line. Yet I think black players can get chances too.

A completely different approach has been recommended for black in some repertoire books: d5 c6 Bf5 or Bg4. It's kind of a Slav/Caro, rather than a French/QGD, way of playing things. It's an answer, but not THE answer, IMO, - a matter of taste.

ErictheRed wrote on 03/09/18 at 17:00:18:


As this variation leads to a Chigorin Defence (by transposition), it is analysed by authors presenting this opening like Morozevich, Williams or Burgess (for White). E.g. Morozevich likes here 3...Bf5 4.Bg2 e6, with Nb4 to follow (considering immediate 4...Nb4 premature).

When my black opening was the QGD Tarrasch, I had a lot of success with a reversed Saemisch.

1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 c5 3.Bg2 Nc6

• 4.d4 e6 5.c4 Nf6 6.cxd5, transposing to the main line Tarrasch, was the invariable choice of strong players.
• 4.O-O e5 5.d3 f6 6.Nbd2, with a rather negative position for white, was the invariable choice of "other" players. Nbd2 is a compliant move, but it is also the only one I have ever faced! Almost anything else would be better, e.g. 6.e4 d4 7.Nh4, 6.c4 d4 7.e3, 6.Re1 Be6 7.Nc3, 6.a3, 6.c3, etc.

These days my repertoire is completely different, but one blitz variation I get a lot is the Elephant Gambit declined(!), e.g. 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3! d5!! 4. d3!!! d4 5. Ne2 Bd6 6. g3 c5 7. Bg2 Nc6 8. O-O h6!? So far nobody has played what must be the critical move 9. Nh4. I guess they don't know too much about the King's Indian. Anyway 9...g5 10. Nf5 Bxf5 11. exf5 Qc7 12. f4 gxf4 13. gxf4 O-O-O is quite sharp, not sure who is better without a few tests. That wBg2 is not exactly sleeping! Stockfish prefers 11...Qd7 which in fact is the first idea I had, but later I concluded the wPf5 is a red herring. Playing against the wBc1 seems stronger.

I have been thinking about RdC's reversed Pirc suggestion. After 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 e5 4.O-O I don't think just any old reversed white system works equally well. In particular, black has to be alert for a sequence c2-c4, ...d5-d4, b2-b4!?. And white has another idea in d2-d4, ...e5-e4, Nf3-e5!?. 

I decided 4...f6 might be best. We should compare with variations after 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 d4. A very recent blitz game went 4...f6 5.d4 e4 6.Ne1 h5 7.h4 g5 8.hxg5 h4 9.gxh4 Rxh4 10.Nf3?? exf3 11. exf3 Qd6 12. f4 fxg5 13. Re1+ Kf7 14. fxg5!! Qh2+ 15. Kf1 Bh3 16. Qf3+ Kg7 17. g6 Qh1+ 18. Ke2 Re8+ 19. Kd3 Nb4+ 20. Kc3 Qxe1+ 21. Bd2 Qe6 and 0-1 shortly. Black's early attack with 7...g5 was hardly convincing, but it did induce a panic from white. In retrospect, simply 6...f5 was good, when white has castled too soon in this Gurgenidze structure.

RdC also suggested the reversed 150 Attack. Both 4...Be6 5.d4 e4 6.Ng5 and 4...Nf6 5.d4 e4 6.Ne5 are interesting for white.

Maybe black could try a reversed Yugoslav idea from the 1970s: 4...Be7 5.c4 dxc4 (5...d4 6.b4!) 6.Qa4 Kf8!? 7.Qxc4 h5. Fischer gave this Kf1 idea for white in My 60 Memorable Games, but I believe it was just for blitz.

I always was reluctant to play/enter in KIA positions with Black (I play the French), due to some quick kills (complete annihilation would be more close to what happened) in my first days as a Frenchie.

But recently I entered "by error" in two KIA via Nf3-g3 move order (first by error, second more or less voluntarily) and got very decent positions with Black. I White wants blood in this kind of positions... well... Be7 plus g5 plus 0-0-0 and all the danger goes to White safety. Usual set-up with e6-d5-Nf6-c5.

Sources I use in this lines:

- Watson in his videos for ICC (Sharpen Your Chess sense series) on the French
- Niclas Huschenbeth videos for chess24 (his series against 1.Nf3)

Another set-up I like a lot is 1.e4 e6 2.d3 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.Ngf3 b6 5.g3 dxe4 (via French move order).

Salut,

PD: As someone said before, one of the key points of 1.Nf3 is to be flexible. If someone only uses this to get a KIA against 1.Nf3 d5, then he/she is very predictable.

TN wrote on 08/01/14 at 17:55:38:




Really, you want me to give away the biggest secret about the KIA from my experience of having played it for over 30 years 



Well it's the secret to dealing with a lot of these reversed openings, it's to play the set up White would play against, in this case, the KID, i.e. d5/c5/Nc6/d5

White shouldn't let you get this set up, but KIA player purists will be complicit in allowing it, but the extra tempo does not help White , took me many many years to realise that. The KID with a tempo up is a marketing ploy for KIA books. The position is equal, but it's certainly winnable for Black.

FreeRepublic wrote on 03/09/18 at 17:31:14:

I lost, but not due to the opening.

TD wrote on 03/09/18 at 08:33:40:


Thanks for the excellent reply. For me, the f6 lines are new and seem murky. I guess I can't complain. Nobody said chess was easy. How did you do in your game?

The main lines, 10...a5 etc., are definitely interesting. However from the black perspective, I'm put off by white's favorable results in general, and by the (recent?) idea of racing the h pawn. So I'm not sure my study time will pay dividends.

Thanks for mentioning the Emms book from 2005. He is such a good author that I'm tempted to by the kindle edition. However Neil McDonald wrote a KIA book in 2014, also published by Everyman. It has all the same chapters, except the last chapter has been split into two. Both books seem to be from the white perspective, based upon the chapter selection. Have you seen the McDonald book?