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PLAY THE KING’S INDIAN
Author: Joe Gallagher
208 pages
Everyman (2004)
Reviewed by John Watson
Joe Gallagher is one of the very best writers on chess openings. He has always put tremendous effort into his books, looking at material afresh and adding a human touch to his writing. Gallagher, although an active GM, hasn’t been afraid to reveal his private analysis while at the same time generating original material as he writes. PLAY THE KING’S INDIAN (“PKI”) follows that pattern and then some. It is a gem of a book, loaded with new analysis that will solidify the current revival of interest in the King’s Indian Defense. I’m confident that high-rated GMs will look upon Gallagher’s work with interest, and my students of middle-range tournament strength are already using PKI with enthusiasm.
As I indicated in the last column, books on openings are starting to resemble each other more while reflecting considerably less work by the authors. Writers who previously put out high-quality works seem to be frantically churning out rather superficial books on subjects ranging from beginner's books to endgames to tactics and other subjects. As far as openings books are concerned, there’s almost a formula that one can follow and get the product out quickly. Essentially this involves letting a chess program download and organize material for you, at which point you talk with great authority about characteristic ideas of the opening. Toss in a few seriously annotated games and surround them with a great mass of game fragments interspersed with a few one-or-two move suggestions. If you haven’t had time to go over the game fragments, explain what mistakes were made basing your knowledgeable-sounding insights on the result of the game. Then you’re on to the next book. Notice that a much lower-rated player who has frequently employed the opening in question can do all of these things.
PLAY THE KING’S INDIAN is as far from that description as could be. Gallagher is an enthusiastic devotee of the King’s Indian and a leading expert on it. He has written several books on the King’s Indian over the years and they’ve all been excellent: The Sämisch King's Indian (Batsford 1995); Beating the Anti King's Indians (Batsford 1996; see below); and STARTING OUT: THE KING'S INDIAN (Everyman 2002). This last is a much-simplified version of what became PKI and according to the author is “primarily aimed at the inexperienced player or the more experienced player who was new to the King’s Indian...it was heavy on verbal explanations and light on theoretical variations.” Regarding the new book he explains: “[PKI] also deals with all the major variations of the King’s Indian but strictly from a Black point of view. It is largely based on my own personal King’s Indian repertoire and the variations that have served me well over the years.” In fact Gallagher includes 25 of his own games. This is a practice that I am normally suspicious of, but the games are so specifically important for the variations under discussion, and so informatively annotated, that one can’t imagine the book without them.
Here are PKI’s Contents:
Part One: The Classical Variation
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5
The Classical Variation: Modern Main Line
The Classical Variation: 9.Ne1 Nd7 without 10.Be3
The Classical Variation: The Bayonet Attack 9.b4
The Classical Variation: White’s 9th Move Alternatives
The Classical Variation: 7...Na6
The Classical Variation: White's 7th Move Alternatives
Part Two: Other Lines
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6
The Sämisch Variation
The Fianchetto Variation
The Four Pawns Attack
White Plays an early h3
The Averbakh Variation
Other Systems
In the Classical Variation the inclusion of 7...Na6 as an alternative is a godsend for those who can’t or don’t want to bury themselves in the dense theory of the main 7...Nc6 lines. Gallagher recommends ambitious but sound variations throughout, for example, 6...c5 versus the Saemisch (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 0-0 6.Be3 c5). The Sämisch Variation analysis is thorough and perfect for a repertoire, including several dynamic options against the popular 7.Bg5 and 7.Nge2. Gallagher’s personal experience really shows through in these lines.
He suggests 6...c5 and 9...Bg4 (in the main lines) versus the Four Pawns Attack, and 6...Na6 versus the Averbakh (his spelling). Again, his Averbakh analysis stems from 10 years or so of playing this system. I think that some minor improvements should be worked in, however, as indicated in my review of THE OFFBEAT KING’S INDIAN.
Versus the Fianchetto systems with g3, the author chooses his own “Gallagher Variation” with ...Nbd7, ...e5, ...exd4, ...Re8 (with ...a6 at some point). The ultra-dynamic moves ...c5 and ...b5 to follow in most cases. The reader gets a world-class lesson about this system and one gets the feeling that the author is holding nothing back. Let's hear what Gallagher has to say about this variation, one that he has played against grandmasters for years:
“Although White’s play is initially quiet, the Fianchetto is not a harmless system. It is, in fact, an extremely dangerous line for the typical King’s Indian player. The positions can be very difficult to handle. In my early King’s Indian days I suffered horribly in this line. Things got so bad that I just felt like resigning when I saw my opponent reaching for the g-pawn. These problems continued for many years until I discovered a way to create chaos on the board. In order to create this chaos Black has to take great positional risks but these risks seemed justifiable against the sort of player who plays the Fianchetto Variation. Above all these players want to control the game and they begin to feel uncomfortable when they feel this control slipping away. Make them dance to your tune and they won’t like it.”
This philosophy could be applied to many of Black’s systems in the King’s Indian Defense. The opening is not for cowards.
PKI is unquestionably dense with 200 pages of small print and only a modest number of diagrams. This allows it to be a serious book that can truly benefit even a grandmaster who plays the KID or wants to take it up. Gallagher’s analysis of particulars is very impressive; this allows the practitioner to return to the book and find precisely has gone wrong or perhaps come up with something new. For the average-strength player, there is also enough explanation (much of it on a sophisticated level) that one feels close to the author’s thought process and understands his reasons for choosing particular moves. There’s even an Index of Variations! It may be only 2 pages long, but that’s already a significant improvement over Everyman’s normal practice.
I can’t recommend this book more highly. As Gallagher points out, much less experienced players needing general ideas more than analysis might want to use his STARTING OUT: THE KING'S INDIAN. The rest of us should take the plunge and read this new book.
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