Hickl's rep[ertoire: what is advantage of 1.g3 over 1.Nf3 and then 2.g3 ?

Hi,

There is a german GM who almost always opens 1.g3 as far as I know.

His name is Joerg Hickl.

As far as I know, he opens 1.g3 and if then:

-Black plays 1...e5 he plays c4 and goes into english opening.

-Black plays 1...d5 he plays Nf3 and goes into KIA or Reti lines.

I don't see why one would play that way, if one opens with 1.Nf3 and then 2.g3 you get option 2 anyway without having to study the lines of the English.

Or is there something that I don't see?

I've been confused about this too. However it looks like 1.g3 avoids the King's Indian Defense - 1.g3 g6 2.Bg2 Bg7 3.e4.

That looks rather smart to me, in view of something that was being discussed on another thread:

Now, according to Fischer, if White plays e4, Black replies c5, bringing about a Closed Sicilian where White's f3 knight obstructs the usual advance of the f pawn, while c4 is met by e5, which is an English where Whitel can't play the Staunton formation because the knight is on f3 instead of e2. The 1.g3 idea avoids this problem.