The King's Indian: give up the centre to attack it

The key idea

The g7 bishop isn't looking at a pawn: it's looking down the long diagonal to the far side of the board, and anything that opens on it plays for him. Black concedes space on purpose, and strikes the centre with ...e5 once his king is safe.

Example 1 · White keeps the tension

The classical line with 6...e5. White can take on e5, close with d5 or leave it — and the game comes out of that decision.

1. O-O White tucks the king away before deciding what to do with the centre, which is sensible. And now Black is the one who has to resolve the tension.
2. exd4 Black trades in the centre. It sounds like a concession and it isn't: with the d4 pawn gone, the g7 bishop's long diagonal clears at a stroke and all his pieces start looking at the far side of the board.
3. Nxd4 White recaptures with the knight and keeps a comfortable centre with e4.
4. Re8 The rook onto the file that has just opened. In the King's Indian the black pieces find their squares as the centre clarifies — which is why Black is in no hurry to define it early.
5. f3 White props up e4 with the pawn. It's solid and it has a cost worth seeing: that pawn on f3 takes his own knight's natural square away and leaves the castled position a bit stiffer.
6. Nc6 The knight comes out hitting the one on d4. Development with tempo, which is how you play when you're a step behind on space.
7. Be3 White defends the knight and finishes developing.
8. Nxd4 A trade and a level position, with Black perfectly comfortable after conceding the centre for eight moves. That's the opening's thesis, demonstrated: occupying the centre and controlling it are not the same thing, and a centre that gets traded stops being an advantage and turns into open files and diagonals — which here play for the bishop on g7.

Example 2 · White closes with d5, and the race begins

With 7.d5 the centre locks. When that happens, each side attacks on the wing their pawns point at — and that gives the most characteristic King's Indian position of all.

1. a5 Before looking at his own king, Black slows White down on the other side. With the centre closed, White's plan is c5 and a break on the queenside; ...a5 costs him several preparatory moves. This order is what separates a well-played King's Indian from a lost race: first you slow his down, then you run.
2. h3 White takes g4 away from the black pieces before getting organised.
3. Nh5 The knight, heading for f4. It can look like it's going to the edge for no reason, and it's the heart of the plan: from h5 it clears the way for the f-pawn and eyes f4, the square White can no longer defend with pawns. A knight on f4 in this structure is worth more than any bishop.
4. Be3 White develops and watches.
5. Na6 The other knight also goes out to the rim, heading for c5. With the centre closed there's no hurry and there are no tactics: both sides place pieces for the break each of them is preparing on his own wing.
6. Nh2 White reorganises to prepare his own advance.
7. Nf4 There's the knight, on the square the whole manoeuvre was worth. No white pawn can chase it — the e- and g-pawns are fixed or it would be a disaster — so it lives there for the rest of the game, pressing e2 and g2 from inside enemy territory.
8. Bf1 White has to defend with modest moves, and Black already has what he was after: an eternal knight on f4 and the ...f5 advance ready to go. The position is still level, but look at how you got here — without a single tactic, just by understanding which way each side's pawns point.

Practice

White has just closed the centre with 7.d5. You're Black: slow his side down first, then take the knight to the square no white pawn can dispute.

1. The brake first. With the centre closed White wants to break with c5, and this costs him several moves of preparation. Before attacking on your wing, make the break White is preparing on the other one harder, using an a-file pawn.
2. The knight heading for f4, clearing the f-pawn's path on the way. On the rim, but with a destination. Move the f6 knight towards the edge: it wants f4, and it frees your f-pawn.
3. The other knight goes out to the rim too, heading for c5. No rush: there are no tactics to calculate here, there are pieces to place. Develop the b8 knight by the only square your own c7 pawn leaves it.
4. That's where it lives for the rest of the game. No white pawn can chase it off f4, and from there it presses e2 and g2 with ...f5 waiting its turn. Finish the manoeuvre: the h5 knight to the square you prepared three moves ago.

Four moves, no captures and a whole plan carried out. Keep the two rules that govern this opening and locked structures in general: with the centre blocked, each side attacks the way their pawns point, and before launching your attack it pays to slow his down — arriving second in a race of wings is expensive. And the underlying idea, which holds all over chess: letting your opponent occupy the centre isn't conceding it, it's betting that he'll have to defend it.