Good Defences

Hello everyone!

I was wondering, are there any extremely good defences for white or black. I am currently playing a game with a friend who is using I believe a Kings Indian Defence (see below) and I was wondering how to counter it and if there are any other very good, solid defences.

Thanks

The point in this situation is for white to 'fianchetto' his bishop, that is, to place it on it's longest diagonal. In this case the white bishop on white squares has it's favoured diagonal stretching from a8 to h1. I'd recommend getting familiar with Reti's ideas. Not reti opening, because it's largely prone to variations, but the idea, that the center can be controlled from afar. You'll notice that lest the knight on f3, the bishop is controlling vital squares d5 and e4, and were the other bishop on b2, all of the center squares would be eyed upon.

In King's Indian attack; double fianchetto, the black tries to take control over the opposite coloured squares ending in a slightly worse situation, though the differences won't become apparent until you're 1800+ ( http://www.chess.com/opening/eco/A07_Kings_Indian_Attack_Double_Fianchetto )

Of course it depends what you've done before your opponents fianchetto/kia/kid among other things but reading about the fianchetto and it's ideas is definetely helpful

Two ideas that usually work against that Bishop are:

1. Line up your Queen and Bishop so you can force your Bishop into h3 and trade Bishops. That leaves the King very weak so you can follow up with h5-h4 and get the rook in as well.
2. A lot of white players like to try to play e4 in that position. This counters the centre but blocks the Bishop so play d4 and make it useless. You can then advance your queenside without worrying about the Bishop.