King's Indian Mindset

In the following game, played in a simultaneous exhibition against a well-known senior master from Maryland, White plays a variation of the Bayonet Attack vs. the King's Indian Defense, throwing in 9. Nd2 before 10. b4.  A war is waged over control of the d6 square, after which, Black stakes all on his kingside attack and leaves the queenside to fend for itself.  He comes within one move of delivering a brilliant checkmate on the kingside before White narrowly escapes with his life.  The game illustrates how every move is judged by the questions "Do I need to play this move?" and  "Does this move help my attack along?"

If you are going to play the King's Indian Defense as Black, you have to have the mindset of being committed to your kingside attack.  Halfway attacking gestures, unnecessary defensive moves on the queenside, and fearful moves just don't cut it.  You're either going to attack and play for mate or you're not.  If you don't like attacking, play the Queen's Gambit.  The main idea you have to keep in mind is this:  "If his queenside attack works, he wins material.  If my kingside attack works, I checkmate him."  That thought will give you courage as your queenside gets decimated.  Think of his captures of your material as a good thing, that is, he is spending time over there and giving your attack more time to develop over here.  Time is the important thing, not a rook on a8 that is contributing nothing to the attack.  Walt Whitman expressed the feeling in his poem, Pioneers, O Pioneers (currently being used in the Levis Jeans "Go Forth" commercials):

COME my tan-faced children,
Follow well in order, get your weapons ready,
Have you your pistols? have you your sharp-edged axes?
Pioneers! O pioneers!

For we cannot tarry here,
We must march my darlings, we must bear the brunt of danger,
We the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

Happy King-hunting!