Is the King's Indian Attack Missing In Action?

 

Does anybody play the King's indian attack. I thinking about adding it to my opening repertoire. I read that it plays very well against the french defense. In fact, you can play the same system of development against virtually any black set-up. (French, Sicilian, Caro-Kann, Queen's indian and Dutch). I normally see players open with Ruy Lopez. Although I love to play the Siciians against e4... all of my oppenent will play either the open/closed Sicilian or that damn Morra Gambit. I haven't seen many players open with KIA. Tell me what you think about it.   

 

 

Join the bandwaggon of players who play it. You might aswell. Here is a game, Kasparov crushes the KIA in 25 moves. Enjoy! 

 

It works best against the French if you don't want to play the mainlines. I wouldn't recommend playing it against the sicilian as shown above (although the KIA works the best against sicilians with e6...like the french) as black can equalize easily in all lines.

 

Still, I play the french defence myself and I can say that if you don't want to play the mainlines then the KIA is probably the best way to go. If black goes into a reversed king's indian he will be two tempi down because the move e6 is not what you want to play in those systems.

The KIA is about equal in the French, but is a very decent response.

KIA is the lazy players opening.
 To ericmittens ;dont mistake the Kasparov game as a Sicilian, that could have easily been a French to start out with. It transposed to a standard set up reachable from 1...e6

Pretty much KIA plays well against the french but not necessary against the sicilian if black's 2nd move is not 2...e6. Do any GM you know that plays this opening other than John Emms?

Lazy Players... lol

I really liked playing the KIA when I used it. The problem with it is that you are relying on the opponent to make a mistake to really have any real winning chances. It works fantastic at lower levels, but the higher up you get people will just gradually crush you.