Just to add that 3...c5 against the Veresov was also covered very well by GM Gustafsson in a video series on Chess24 as well. In usual style he called the line the "very soft", in case anyone wondered about his opinion of the opening 

It was in the good ol Avrukh tome as well, IIRC.

Not really fussed vs the Barry Attack stuff, know roughly what I'm doing there, but wanted to avoid Pirc transpositions if at all possible since that's a lot of extra repertoire work.

Think I'm going to stick the with 3...c5 approach, and just learn the antidote there. In my game I followed some well trodden path into a risky double-edged line but it looks like safe and strong alternatives were available, and White can't prove much unless Black lets him.

If 4. Cf3 and White tries to do a Dd2/0-0-0 setup it looks like transposes into the Barry Attack since the attack seems to me the only plan in such a position.

If 4. e3 g6 this looks more like a Grünfeld closed with e3 and with a clumsy Cc3. The KID and Grünfeld might look similar, but the play is really different in both openings and their setups. KID players usually avoid any ...d5 when their opponent does not play ball and chooses Torre and London, in which case some books even have approaches for KID players and a different one for Grünfeld players due to both being so different.

As a KID player, I remember not wanting to transpose to Grünfeld setups because the lack of typical ...e5 and sometimes ...c5 breaks were not the same type of play in KID setups. Now as a Grünfeld player I do not want to play with ...d6 setup and only ...d5 when fianchetto against non main lines, because they are quite different 

To me a Pirc/KID player would prefer staying within the dark squared complex, so I would avoid the ...d5 line against Weresow altogethers and just transpose in any case to Pirc.

fjd wrote on 12/05/18 at 00:39:23:


If I recall correctly, if White is playing slowly or positionally in the Weresow, then I think that she is either playing the wrong opening or in some strange way 

In the main line after 3. Ag5 Cbd7, unless theory has skifted, is quite sharp, where White plays like a Fantasy against the Caro-Kann, i.e. with f3 and e4 and Black has to counter with ...e5 and bringing the queen out early. Certainly not enough time to fianchetto like the Pirc.

If you refer to some 150-attack like setup with Cc3/Dd2/0-0-0/h4/Ah6 where White does not play e4, then that would transpose to the Barry Attack, a similar opening to Weresow but not the same.

As a Pirc player myselfs as well as former KID player, I would just save time and headache by avoiding both Weresow and Barry and just transpose to Pirc with 2...g6 and 3...d6. Any later e4 is a Pirc, and an e3 is a very strange anti-KID system that tries to combine a Smsylow-style system but without c4 since the Cc3 is clumsy there. Seem simple to me.

The moment you play 2...d5 there's obviously not much of a KID flavor anymore.

The Schmid Benoni (Benoni without c4) is somewhat closer in style to the KID, so you could try 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nc3 c5 aiming for that. But be sure to look at the lines a bit first; many believe White is simply better there.

I find it interesting, but in practice I tend to lose Schmid Benoni positions from both sides of the board, so I have a lot to learn there... 

Isn't it the case that the sharp answer always has some theory behind it? 3...Nbd7 was recommended by Gallagher (1996) Beating the Anti-King's Indians.