New and Surprising Motifs in the KID
Some time ago I discovered two motifs in the King’s Indian Defence that I've never seen before.
The KID is an opening where a lot of both sides' maneuvers and ideas have been explored and are well-known. To name a few, for Black these include the ...e4 pawn sacrifice to open the long diagonal for the fianchettoed bishop, the (passive) exchange sacrifice on f4 where a rook is placed on that square for White to capture with his bishop, where Black again obtains dark-square compensation in return, the blockading idea of ...a5 and ...Nc5 on the queenside etc.
It is similar for White, the c5-pawn sacrifice to open the lines on the queenside, the g4 thrust to stop or limit Black's kingside activity, the landing of the knight on e6 (Ng5-e6) in order to eliminate Black's light-squared bishop even at the expense of a pawn, among many others.
The position below is not the exact position where the engine came up with the motifs, but unfortunately I cannot remember the exact position! I spent quite some time looking for it, but to no avail, which is a pity. So I decided to show you a generic KID position to explain the idea. Again, please just follow the explanation, don't try to analyse the position below with concrete moves.
First to explain Black’s novel motif.
On the previous move Black played ...Nd7-c5, provoking b4 so that after …Nc5-d7 he can next play ...a5 to open the a-file for his rook. So Black spent two moves only with the aim to activate the queen’s rook by opening the a-file! (Naturally, the pawn on e4 was not hanging in the original position!)
Now the engine came up with an ingenious prophylactic concept for White.
White plays Rb3 with the idea that after ...a5, the move Ra3! pins the a5-pawn, thus preventing Black's plan to open the a-file for his rook.
I found both concepts really striking - first Black is wasting two moves to provoke b4 in order to play ...a5 and open the a-file and then White embarks on an original rook maneuver in front of his a2-pawn to prevent Black's counterplay.
What can I say, engines do teach us things!
P.S. This week’s video looks at the innocuous move …h6 against the Catalan and shows the big ideas behind it. Played by Magnus Carlsen on more than one occasion, the move introduces a dynamic approach for Black against the usually annoying Catalan. It’s a good way to meet this opening if you like active piece play and more dynamism in an exchange for an IQP. Take a look and leave your thoughts in the comments!