Is the King's Indian defence a system that works against all?

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Avatar of ICchess12

Beginner here. I see the King's Indian defence and I was curious as to would it  be classified as a system. To me it seems that it works against all d4 attacks. So is this true and/or are there similarities in each King's Indian defence but it must be adapted based on what white does? Thank you.

Avatar of ThrillerFan

A King's Indian setup works against "most" openings, but you still cannot treat it as a system because gameflow is TOTALLY DIFFERENT between say, a KID setup against Bird's Opening and a KID setup against the London System.

It does not work against 1.e4, 1.Nc3, 1.b3, or 1.g4.

Against lines like 1.f4, it does not play like a King's Indian at all, and in some lines, you have to play c5 instead of e5.

For example, if White goes for a reversed leningrad, after 1.f4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 O-O 5.O-O d6.6.d3, 6...e5 is no good, and after say, 6...c5 7.Nc3 Nc6 8.e4, you have a direct transposition to the Closed Sicilian.

So while the setup may be viable after 5 moves against many white openings, they are NOTHING alike, so if you are thinking this is a shortcut to having to learn a ton of theory, THINK AGAIN!

Avatar of illegalthingy
All it doesn’t work against is g4
Avatar of 1Lindamea1
It does work against e4 and Nc3 tho
Avatar of ICchess12
lassus_dinnao wrote:
It does work against e4 and Nc3 tho

Isn't that then the Price defence? And against d4 are more alterations needed?

Avatar of brianchesscake
ThrillerFan wrote:

A King's Indian setup works against "most" openings, but you still cannot treat it as a system because gameflow is TOTALLY DIFFERENT between say, a KID setup against Bird's Opening and a KID setup against the London System.

agree. KID works against every d4 opening, but there are slight variations in how black should play against certain setups, and knowing / understanding these subtleties requires good positional sense.

Avatar of ThrillerFan
ICchess12 wrote:
lassus_dinnao wrote:
It does work against e4 and Nc3 tho

Isn't that then the Price defence? And against d4 are more alterations needed?

The Kings Indian Defense and the Pirc Defense are NOTHING ALIKE. Comparing the Kings Indian to the Pirc is like comparing Chocolate Layer Cake to Cream of Mushroom Soup!

Avatar of GMegasDoux

Well set up wise they are closer than that. Move order is different for reasons of square control and the games go in different directions becausr of white' s set up. If you learned both openings in their entirety and played them exclusively against e4 and d4 then this likely would become a system opening. Note the Anglo Indian exists and can transposes into Kings Indian. Nf3 Zukertort opening d6 Perc invitation exists. The Hungarian opening exists and can transition into a Kings Indian.