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King's Indian Battle Plans reviewed by David Surratt
King's Indian Battle Plans is not a repertoire book, nor does it present an exhaustive treatise on the KID. Aptly titled, Battle Plans provides a more general view of the many variations covered, with plenty of specific ideas and suggestions. As Martin puts it in the Introduction:
Battle Plans is essentially a collection of more than 200 heavily annotated games. Martin starts off with nine game he calls "Celebration Games", intended, Martin says, to inspire. Included are such classic KI games as Taimanov-Najdorf, Zurich 1953; as well as more recent fare, such as Khalifman-Akopian, FIDE WCh Final 1999. Next are "a few warning shots", five games chosen to demonstrate "how NOT to play" the KI. Here Martin discusses the perils of ceding key central squares, among other KI sins. Other sections in Battle Plans look at the different variations, the Four Pawns Attack, Saemisch, Averbakh, Fianchetto, a chapter on the 5.Nd3 Seirawan, 5.Nge2 Kramer, and other odds & ends. Battle Plans finishes up with eight chapters on the various incarnations of the Classical KI. Each chapter begins with a very short introduction to the line under examination, followed by numerous illustrative games, each packed with Martin's own witty commentary as well as his highly original opening ideas. An exhaustive bibliography (40 books!) finishes off the book, along with some advertising. One of these latter advises the availability of a CD containing the raw data supplied by Martin to the publishers, including many games that were omitted from the book due to space considerations, "lots of extra unpublished lines and tries added by the editor to supplement the text..." In addition they've added "hundreds of games and fragments and nearly 250 extra games (not in the book) supplied as the book went to press." Thinkers Press wants $25 for this CD, but offer it at $9.95 to purchasers of Battle Plans. One general complaint I have about Battle Plans is the lack of any index. At least an index of variations ought to be provided, if not one of games or players. In defense of Battle Plans the chapters are sequenced according to the ECO code, from E76 through E99. Another complaint I have is with the diagrams, which are comparatively sparse, in fact some games have none at all. The diagrams which are there are fairly small (one and five-eighths of an inch to a side) and of fairly low quality. Still, users of this book probably shouldn't be trying to read it like a novel anyway, and if you have the board set up in front of you - who needs diagrams? An excerpt from one of the games we published here in December:
Cebalo,M (2510) - Pavlovic,M (2565) 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f4 c5 6.d5 0-0 7.Nf3 a6!?
The red rag is held out in front of Cebalo and he does not disappoint us. 7...a6 is the introduction to a very provocative line. 8.a4 8.Be2 lets Black execute his idea of ...b7-b5. I think that this isn't desirable: 8...b5 9.cxb5 Qa5 10.0-0 axb5 11.e5 Nfd7 12.exd6 exd6 13.Nxb5 Qb6 with an equal but unclear position.
Black has typical compensation in the form of two open queenside files, a strong diagonal for the fianchettoed Bishop and numerous dark-square weaknesses in the White camp. Over the board it's a bad decision to go in for this sort of stuff as White. The position's just too unwieldy; there are too many difficulties. If you play the King's Indian, or play against it, it's best to come armed with plenty of ideas, and King's Indian Battle Plans provides plenty of food for thought. Check it out more closely for yourself:
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