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The Mar del Plata Attack: The Neo-Classical
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The Mar del Plata Attack: The Neo-Classical

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There is a whole lot to cover in the King's Indian Defense, let alone the Mar del Plata Attack, and within the Mar del Plata there are many, many lines to consider. We're going to look at them one by one, starting with the most common and popular and working our way down.

Last time we learned about the main ideas of the Classical System, and didn't go into the lines. But I did say that we would be looking at both 9...Nd7 and 9...Ne8. I explained the differences between the two in my previous post, The Mar del Plata Attack Part 1: Main Ideas of the Classical. Here's a quick recap.

9...Nd7 is more common because it simultaneously prepares ...f7-f5 and slows down white's queenside play with c4-c5.

But white doesn't really need to prepare for c4-c5. A good example of when white can just play c5 immediately is the Kozul Gambit. 

9...Ne8 also prepares ...f7-f5, and the difference between this and 9...Nd7 is that with the knight on e8, two crucial squares are protected, c7 and d6, which are two main focuses of white's attack.

Since I said we would be looking at the most common and popular lines first, 9...Nd7 will be our first subject. 

After 9...Nd7, there are two main moves which are the two moves that you will see most of the time. They are 10. Be3 and 10. Nd3. These two moves have almost exactly the same number of games played. If you were to see another move that was not either of those, it is probably 10. f3. We don't need to go over that because it usually transposes to the main lines of 10. Be3 and has the same ideas and plans.

First we will look at 10. Be3, since I've faced this move more, prefer playing against it more, and am more familiar with it. It is officially called the Neo-Classical Line.

Here the move is 10...f5, the idea behind black's last move. After this, the race begins.

After 10...f5, virtually the only move, and the most obvious, is 11. f3. 11. exf5 just frees black and lets him attack faster with mobile pawns on e5 and f5 and an open g-file. 11. Nd3 has been tried a few times, but if black plays correctly, white has a disadvantage already. 11. f3 is necessary to support the center, but also more importantly to give the dark-squared bishop and hidey-hole when ...f5-f4 is played since the bishop will be much more effective on the g1-a7 diagonal than on c1 or d2 where it will be blocked in. Here's an example game between Wim Bjistra as white, whom I know nothing about, and IM Mark Rivera playing the black pieces.

Doesn't inspire you to play 11. Nd3, am I right?
Now that we understand why 11. f3 is the move, let's move on. The next few moves are clear-cut.
Black's pawns are starting to come down the board. This is where play diverges. We will look at four white moves here, 13. a4, 13. Rc1, 13. Nd3, and 13. b4. Another common theme in many KID Mar del Plata lines is white playing g2-g4 and locking up the kingside, but I will do a separate post on that specific move.
From now on I would like to keep each post a bit shorter than usual as it will be much easier for all of us to break it into smaller pieces, so next time we will pick up with 13. a4. After that we'll look at  the Kozul Gambit and other lines with 13. Rc1, and then 13. Nd3 and 13. b4. I will explain the purposes of each of the moves in the future.
Today was not meant to be in-depth on the variations, and we only looked at three moves after 9...Nd7, but I want to start slowly and work our way through the lines with as much ease and as little confusion as possible. Next time we'll jump right into 13. a4.
Thanks for reading! I hope this helped and I will post again soon.