Lifetime Repertoires: King's Indian Defense - Part 1

🏆 Shortlisted for Best Opening Course
& Course of the Year 2021 🏆

Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, Hikaru Nakamura - all of these legendary players are known for their intense, positional attacking style and opening perfectionism. And it’s no coincidence that when they needed a win against 1.d4, they trusted the King’s Indian Defense.

A Defense Fit for a King

The King’s Indian Defense isn’t one of those easy systems to ‘get out of the opening’. It’s a sophisticated approach to fighting 1.d4, with plenty of theory. But when used properly, it’s lethal.

Just ask Grandmaster Gawain Jones. The KID has served him well over the years, and the results speak for themselves: 2-time British chess champion, London Chess Classic winner, FIDE World Cup contender - the list goes on and on. And now the British chess star is sharing all his knowledge of this ‘kingly’ defense in a repertoire that will last you a lifetime.

Positional Lethality

So what makes the King’s Indian Defense such a challenge to 1.d4? Well, to sum it up in one sentence: it throws ‘standard’ point values of the pieces out the window. Your monstrous bishop on g7 will easily be worth double its ‘3 points’ as it cuts through the center and dominates the queenside. Your knights will deftly maneuver the pawn structure to undermine White’s center and counterattack. And you’ll mobilize the pawns in ways you’ll think they’re the MVPs of the game.

The pieces get their extra power from the KID’s extremely positional nature. You’ll find yourself quite often sacrificing material to generate a blistering attack. Check out this position for example:

Black sacrifices a knight on f2, but Qh4+ is coming with a crushing attack

And if all these sacrifices make you a little leery, no need to worry. GM Jones will help you perfect your positional play as this opening requires. You’ll know when to sacrifice for the initiative, make pawn breaks at their critical moments, and counterattack instead of merely defending. GM Jones thoroughly explains critical theory in the key variations and then some. In Part 1, you'll learn:

♚ The Classical Variation (5. Nf3) and its many subvariations:
♟ The critical Mar del Plata Variation (6...e5 7. O-O Nc6 8. d5 Ne7)
♟ Petrosian System (6...e5 7.d5)
♟ Gligoric System (6...e5 Be3)
♚ Samisch Variation (5. f3)
♚ Makogonov Variation (and other h3 systems)
♚ Sidelines and less common variations such as the Exchange Variation (7. dxe5)
♚ Model games

This course is the definitive guide to the King’s Indian Defense. With over 1,000 trainable lines and dozens of hours of video, you’ll be booked up much more than your opponent. And with a star practitioner like Gawain Jones as your teacher, you can rest assured that you’re getting quality lessons.

This King’s Indian repertoire is not for the faint of heart. It’s a repertoire fit for a champion. Take up the gauntlet with the King’s Indian Defense and elevate your positional play today.