King's Indian Defense for Black – Top-Level Repertoire by GM Aydin Suleymanli
The King's Indian Defense has never been an opening for players content with a draw. It is the choice of World Champions like Fischer, Tal, Spassky and Kasparov, and modern stars such as Hikaru Nakamura and Teimour Radjabov, who wanted to fight for the initiative as Black from the very first moves. Its logic is deliberately provocative: Black concedes the center, lets White build it, and stakes everything on dynamic counterplay.
That fighting spirit has a precise face in this repertoire. In the Classical main line, GM Aydin Suleymanli does not steer into the most heavily analyzed channels — he reaches for 7...Bg4, a rare idea in which Black is perfectly content to give up the light-squared bishop for White's knight. It is the King's Indian bargain in miniature: trade a small concession for clarity and activity, then play for the win.
A repertoire against every White setup
The strength of the course is its coverage. Suleymanli builds one coherent system that meets the full spectrum of White's tries — from the early deviations 3.f3, 3.h4 and the Fianchetto with 3.g3, through the Saemisch, the Four Pawns Attack, the Averbakh, the Makogonov and the Petrosian, all the way to the Classical main line. Each line comes with a clear plan rather than a memorized sequence, so the same understanding carries from one branch to the next.
The author and his approach
Suleymanli presents the material as a practical repertoire grounded in modern theory and his own experience in top-level play. The recommendations are chosen because they hold up against current preparation and because they are comfortable to handle over the board — the goal is confidence in real games, not memorization that evaporates the moment an opponent steps off the main road.
Premium Course Features
This is a Modern Chess Premium course, built as a complete training system:
- 18 theory chapters with video explanations
- 30 test positions — critical moments with tactical and strategic solutions
- 5 training positions for interactive practice against the engine
- To-Go Version of every chapter — condensed files for pre-game review
- Memory Booster — for long-term recall of key ideas
- Multilingual PGN files — English, German, French, and Spanish
- Full download access — all materials are yours to keep
Repertoire map
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6
- 3.f3 — Saemisch structure without an early Nc3 → Chapter 1
- 3.h4 — the aggressive flank thrust; harmless against the King's Indian → Chapter 2
- 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 d6 5.Nc3 O-O — the Fianchetto
- 6.Nf3 Bd7 7.O-O Nc6 — a rare set-up playing for the win → Chapter 4
- 6.e3 and other 5th–6th-move sidelines → Chapter 3
After 3.Nc3 Bg7:
- 4.Nf3 O-O 5.Bg5 — White sidesteps the main set-up (with 3rd–5th-move rares) → Chapter 5
After 4.e4 d6:
- 5.f3 — the Saemisch
- 6.Be3 — the main Saemisch; White prepares Qd2 and the trade of dark-squared bishops → Chapter 8
- 6.Bg5 (with Nge2) — deviations from the main Saemisch → Chapter 7
- 5.Bd3 — preparing Nge2 to keep the f-pawn free → Chapter 6
- 5.h3 — securing g4 before Be3 → Chapter 9
- 5.f4 — the Four Pawns Attack → Chapter 10
- 5.Be2 O-O — the Classical
- 6.Be3 — White delays the knight development → Chapter 12
- 6.Bg5 — the Averbakh, met with a classical, equalizing approach → Chapter 11
The Classical main line — 5.Nf3 O-O 6.Be2 e5:
- 6.Bd3 (and rares) — sidestepping the main directions → Chapter 13
- 6.h3 — the Makogonov, geared toward queenside castling → Chapter 14
- 7.O-O Bg4 — the repertoire's backbone; Black readily trades the light-squared bishop for the knight
- 8.d5 — the main tabiya; White closes the center and plays on the queenside → Chapter 18
- 8.dxe5 (and rares) — logical, but offers White little → Chapter 17
- 7.Be3 (and rares) — common, but not dangerous → Chapter 15
- 7.d5 — the Petrosian; White locks the center for Be3 or Bg5 → Chapter 16
Pairing it with an answer to 1.e4
The King's Indian equips Black with a sharp, ambitious response to 1.d4. Alongside it, Suleymanli's The Classical Sicilian for Black: A Complete and Practical Repertoire is his weapon of choice against 1.e4. Both courses dig deep into the main battlegrounds of their openings, giving players who favor rich, double-edged positions a coherent way to meet White's two principal first moves.
Get the course
If you want a King's Indian you can rely on against everything from the Saemisch to the Classical — one repertoire, one set of guiding ideas, reinforced by test positions, interactive training, and a Memory Booster — this course gives you the complete package. Add it to your library and start playing the King's Indian the way it was meant to be played: for the initiative, and for the win.