Fighting the Anti-King's Indians: How To Handle White'S Tricky Ways Of Avoiding The Main Lines (Everyman Chess)

If you play the King's Indian Defense, then at some point you have to be prepared for the anti-King's Indian lines. Yelena Dembo's book should be compared with Joseph Gallagher's book "Beating The Anti-King's Indian" (a King's Indian specialist). Both sources are good but I have a slight preference for Dembo who give good ways to deal with English formations along with other setups.The only drawback is that lines where your opponent plays identical moves aren't discussed, i.e. King's Indian vs. King's Indian. Also, hedgehog defense setups aren't discussed. Overall, this is a reliable resource to turn to when in need of having to play against anti-King's Indian.I think the recommendations that Dembo offers will serve you well and will not likely need to be updated for quite some time.

IM Dembo champions some more rarely played and difficult variations against White's attempts to avoid the King's Indian, Gruenfeld, and Benoni Defenses. The analyses covers the openings, presenting deviations in the notes. As in many opening works, we are given variation A, B, C, D, etc. There are no illustrative games.Professional players will no doubt find the reference handy as the variations lead to definite results with few draws. Club players with good memories may be able to retain the analyses. Most of us will just get confused.

Ever tried to play an opening and your opponent plays a move that is not in the book of openings? Using this book you can get a better feel on what to do on more unusual moves against the Kings Indian Defense. I like playing the Kings Indian because it is flexible but what if the opponent does not play d4? What do you do then? This book explains other type of openings from White that you can play with different ideas of the Kings Indian such as the London system, King side fianchetto, the torre attack and a few more other unusual openings. Going through these openings definitely gave me a better feel of the Kings Indian Defense

Timeless Classic!!!

This may be the best opening book ever written. If you play the King's Indian, no, if you play 1.d4 Nf6, then you absolutely must buy this book. Packed with original and computer-checked analysis, this is a must-read. Dembo explains positional concepts with flair, explaining the logic behind almost every move. Dembo examines all of white's tries and describes how to make a complex, interesting struggle out of all of them, including the most boring systems. My favorite chapter is the one on the Trompowsky. Dembo recommends 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 c5! with the aim of exploiting white's dark square weaknesses after the bishop is traded off. After reading, it seems like practically a refutation of the Trompowsky! I showed Dembo's ideas to my coach, who is an IM approaching his last GM norm, and he couldn't dent Dembo's line. Though thinner than Palliser's Fighting the Anti-Sicilians, in my opinion it is a better book, as Fighting the Anti-Sicilians is just reams and reams of analysis. This book + Gallagher's Starting Out: The King's Indian Defense = a full repertoire against 1.d4. Overall, a fantastic read.

I don't review every book I buy, but feel the need to counter the one review for this book which gave it ***.This book has been a great help to me, as I think I play the King's Indian as Black. I say "think", because in our various local leagues White seems honour-bound to avoid the KI by choosing one of the lines covered in this book; so much so that it is actually quite rare for a game of mine to actually reach KI territory!On the plus side, an understanding of the lines in this book has significantly improved my confidence in facing 1. d4. Some of the book would even be relevant to a Nimzo-Indian player, e.g. 1. d4 Nf6; 2. Bg5 (Trompovsky; chapter 1) and 2. Nc3 d5 after which 3. Bg5 is a Veresov (chapter 2) and even 3. e4 (Blackmar-Diemer Gambit; chapter 9) is seen from time to time at the club level at which I play. However most of the book presumes Black wants to play 2. Nf3 g6, hence its lines against the London System (chapter 4), Torre (chapter 5) and Colle (chapter 6). This is right in my repertoire and I only wish I had access to such comprehensive coverage 20 years ago!On the minus side, the lines against the Trompovsky include some long variations where the rewards are a clear advantage to Black but with numerous tactical pitfalls along the way; at my age, I wouldn't be at all confident in remembering 20+ moves of theory the next time I face this line! Richard Palliser's book Beating Unusual Chess Openings had the advantage of offering two lines against White's offbeat tries, e.g. a safe / pragmatic line and a more adventurous one, whereas Dembo only rarely discusses from her recommended path.Still, this book is a definite asset to my library and one which I usually refer to once or twice a month during the season.

For kings indian players that have worked thrue and are confident with the lines in Gallaghers "Play the kings indian / Starting out the kings indian" I do not think any of the anti-kings indian lines in this book will cause to many problems. Going thrue GM games one can se that several (al) of the anti openings quite usual are met with traditionel KID play - without getting burned.Considered the time it will take to master all these different openings I think - at least for players below 2100 - it will be more rewarding hammering down the "normal" kid theory and f.eks. spicing it up with ideas from the Dangerous weapons kings indian book. Awareness of openings like trompowsky is okey, but this is easy gained from a chess program/ free videos and articles.