how much theory in the KID

For a 1400 player the exact quantity is 140 oz of theoretical book's weight. 

Honestly, the basic idea of the KID classical was summed up as: White attacks on the Q-side, Black attacks on the K-side, and it's a race. Black's advantage is that even if White wins on the Q-side, Black can often win the King. 

For a 14xx rated player, you don't need much theory to play the KID. Just look for a K-side attack with f5 and g5 stuff. Then study the games you play and learn as you go along. 

lol stop trolling

Bro do you even chess?

You have to take in 6 grams of theory per ounce of brain mass every 4 hours.

The nice thing is (for any opening) you don't need much theory at that level.

Memorize the first 5 or so moves + the basic idea of a few main lines like the Averbak, Samisch, etc. This might just take one day with wiki + chessgames.com

For example the basic idea of the classical is to attack on the kingside. The basic idea of the others I'm not sure because I don't play the KID as either color

Then I'd play some practice games vs an engine and look at 1 or 2 GM games a day.

If you did something like that for 1 month you'd be playing the opening portion of KID games way above a 1400 level, and I think we could agree that's a pretty easy amount of work, maybe 30 minutes a day.

I love openings that the pieces can play it themselves! Unless its really an abra-cadbra spell cast by a 3500+ secret second. Theres something scary about black magic playing exactly like Stockfish depth 45. I touch a piece and then the other side knight starts to float in the air as if to say dont think about it.

It is not that simple.

Back when I was 1800, I would blow away 1600 to 1800 kings Indian players with the 4 pawns attack and they would assume the f5 strategy and get killed.

There is a ton of theory in the King's Indian.  Sure at the 1400 level you do not need to know the 27th move of the classical, but you need to understand that the 4 pawns, Saemisch, and Fianchetto play about as similar to the classical as there is similarity between rap and opera!

@Thrillerfan, of course it's not that simple. But as a 1400 starting out, the broad brush strokes work.

An advanced study of the KID would begin with Zita-Bronstein, carry through the games of Tal, Kasparov, Nunn, and Radjabov, and cover the White responses by Korchnoi against Hulak, Piket against Kasparov, and Kramnik's work in the Bayonet.

And even that would just scratch the surface.

But for a 1400 player just starting out, it should be enough to get started.

This thread may be the first in the attempt to quantify theory instead of qualifying it, besides detailing the effects of triple distilled vodka on vision. Keep going folks. Perhaps the scientific community will learn something from this. 

Not the sidelines are the problem tho.. the theory in the main line should keep you busy and worrying.

Yermolinsky stated that if you try to learn chess scientifically, you will always fail. Chess is like a language, sometimes you just have to dive right in and get immersed in the subject without worrying too much about the theory.

Indeed. It's pretty weird to even ask that! There is soo much to learn, study and memorize. As a KID player myself, I basically had like only a MCO, some Fischer games, Fine's Practical Chess Openings & Opening Theory books earlier on. I studied Kasparov's games and later acquired more books which proved helpful to me. But after some 20+ years of experience, I can tell you, yeah just dive right in brother (as Smyslovfan mentioned)! With today's wealth of information it should be easier to access latest games, theory. I strongly advocate establishing your opening repertoire-it's going to be your identity, your "game" from here on out. Trust the process. Best wishes