Understand the King's Indian Defence - Pawn Structures, Tactical Ideas, Endgames, and Theoretical Trends 

December Camp - King's Indian Defence - Pawn Structures, Tactical Ideas, Endgames, and Theoretical Trends.

Introduction and Free Preview

The camp dedicated to the King's Indian Defence is already a digital product. This product includes all the videos from the camp as well as the PGN file related to the training sessions. Overall, the material consists of approximately 10 hours of video and a PGN database which includes 134 files!

You will find the following lectures:

Typical Tactical and Attacking Ideas in King’s Indian Defence - GM Davorin Kuljasevic

Master the King’s Indian Endgames - GM Dejan Bojkov

Understand the Fianchetto Structures - GM Grigor Grigorov

Releasing the Central Tension with dxe5 or ...exd4 - GM Mihail Marin

Modern Theoretical Trends - GM Boris Avrukh

Classical King’s Indian Structures - White Plays d4-d5 - GM Petar Arnaudov

Q&A Session with GM Grigor Grigorov and GM Petar Arnaudov

In this article, we will briefly present some interesting moments taken from the lectures.

Typical Tactical and Attacking Ideas in King's Indian Defence - GM Davorin Kuljasevic

The King's Indian Defence is famous for its attacking and tactical ideas. Even though it is very difficult to present all the variety of such ideas in just one lecture, GM Kuljasevic managed to introduce the most interesting tactical subtleties.

The PGN version of the lecture consists of 10 extensively annotated model games and 10 test positions.

Below, you shall take a look at one of the model games.

Master the King’s Indian Endgames - GM Dejan Bojkov

When you want to master a given opening, it is good to start from the endgame. In this way, you would know what you want to achieve. In this lecture, GM Dejan Bojkov examines the typical King's Indian endgames. In his examples. he covers the most important ideas both for White and Black. 

The PGN version of this lecture consists of 24 extensively annotated model games. 

Below, you can take a look at one of them:

 Understand the Fianchetto Structures - GM Grigor Grigorov

In this lecture, GM Grigorov deals with the typical structures which arise from his pet Fianchetto Variation. Even though GM Grigorov prefers White's chances in such structures, he shows the most critical ideas for Black as well. 

The current lecture covers the following 7 important structures:

Structure 1

Structure 2

Structure 3

Structure 4

Structure 5

Structure 6

Structure 7

The explanations of each one of these structures are backed up by model games. The PGN version of the lecture consists of 14 extensively annotated model games.

Below, you shall take a look at one of them.

Releasing the Central Tension with dxe5 or ...exd4 - GM Mihail Marin

The central tension is one of the most fundamental positional elements in King's Indian Defence. This tension is very well illustrated in the following diagram:

This is maybe the most important theoretical tabiya in King's Indian Defence. One of the most complex decisions for both sides is when and whether to release the tension in the centre. Even though 100% correct answers are impossible, in his lecture GM Mihail Marin provides valuable insights.

The PGN version of his lecture consists of 17 extensively annotated model games.

Here is one of them.

Modern Theoretical Trends - GM Boris Avrukh

When we talk about theoretical trends in an opening arising after 1.d4, there is hardly a bigger expert than GM Boris Avrukh. The fact that he has played King's Indian with both colours further contributes to his understanding of this opening. After studying this lecture, besides all the fresh ideas and developments, you will get a better knowledge of which lines are playable. Knowing whether a given line is worth studying is already half of the job.

 Classical King’s Indian Structures - White Plays d4-d5 - GM Petar Arnaudov

In this lecture, GM Petar Arnaudov deals with the so-called Mar del Plata pawn structure:

Here is how he introduces the topic:

I will examine the tactical and strategical ideas for both colours in the most popular system in King's Indian Defense - Mar del Plata. This system becomes popular around 60 years ago at the early 50s, mainly because of the efforts of Mark Taimanov for White and the Serbian (Yugoslavian) legendary player Svetlozar Gligoric for Black. The popularity increased after the following game which becomes a model game showing how to play the KID with Black and many generations of strong players are learning from it. There are hundreds of games, books and videos which give some long forced lines here, but my idea is not to provide you with an opening repertoire but to teach you how to handle the arising positions. In these positions, computer evaluations are irrelevant, since the computer always gives a big advantage for White even after the first ten moves, mainly because of the space advantage. This is not an objective evaluation and a number of players have lost their games because of their trust in the engines. What really matters here is understanding. Usually, the outcome is favourable for the side one who manages to execute his plan first. I can recommend you sincerely to learn how to play this line for both sides because this is one of those fundamental structures in chess which is must know.

The article consists of 19 extensively annotated model games and 10 test positions.

Below, you shall take a look at one of the games.