Winning against King’s Indian – With the main line by Mihail Marin Chessbase

In the classical system of the King’s Indian White develops naturally and refrains from chasing ghosts looking for a refutation of Black’s set-up. White instead relies on the fact that natural play should yield him a small but lasting advantage. The main question is whether White can retain the harmony of his pieces in the blocked position of the Mar del Plata attack (7…Nc6 8.d5 Ne7) when both sides attack on opposite wings. The best answer to that question is given by the classical system with 9.Nd2, in which White‘s knights and bishops cooperate harmoniously. Many great players of the past and the present have used and use this system successfully. Until play becomes very concrete, usually around moves 18-20, positional understanding is far more useful than computer assistance. At first, engines are sceptical about many objectively best white moves, and the author has seen this as a challenge to prove that in certain positions human understanding is still more valuable than the calculating powers of the computer.