KID Fianchetto: Opening AND Finishing
My last article showed Miguel Najdorf on the white side of the King’s Indian Defense using the Fianchetto Variation. This line has the advantage of placing the bishop on g2 where it can have considerable influence on the center, but does not exert any control over b5, where Black often seeks to push a pawn. In the King’s Indian, Black frequently plays e5 and later f5 to get play on the kingside. Developing a strong attack against White’s king is more difficult in the Fianchetto Variation than in most other lines. For players of the white pieces, this variation is a reasonable alternative to the Classical Variation, the Saemisch Variation, the Four Pawns Attack (which can also be reached from the Modern Benoni), the Averbakh Variation, and other variations. White has all these choices when starting with 1.d4, but if White starts with 1.Nf3 or 1.c4 and plays an early g3 while Black uses a King’s Indian setup, then White can enter the KID Fianchetto Variation by getting in the moves c4, d4, and g3. White can delay d4 and even decide to play d3 instead, which combined with c4 makes for the English Opening, or without c4 makes it a Reti Opening.
In the game selected, White is GM Alexander Fominyh who was born in 1959 in Russia and Black is IM German Kochetkov who was born in 1965 in Belarus. The opening of a chess game is of great interest to those who study chess as is attested to by the great numbers of opening manuals produced each year. In this game, I found the manner White demonstrated in finishing the game very instructive. Fominyh showed how two pieces that were obviously attacking the kingside were decisively aided in controlling squares by a piece far away. Despite being an exchange down, White finished off Black. The fianchettoed bishop loyally stood guard at its opening post and never made another move.
I suggest that readers stop advancing the moves on the board after 26...Rb6 and try to find the method White used to finish the game.