KID: When to exd4?

I've been learning to play the King's Indian Defense, and I had a question about pawn structure. Here is a typical KID pawn structure:

From what I know, white would like to keep the tension in the center with d4. As black, I have usually waited or tried to force white to make a decision on what to do with the d4 pawn. If white plays d5, then I aim to play f5. If white dxe5, then I recapture with the d-pawn, cover the d5-square with c6, and try to position a piece on the d4 outpost.

My question is, when should black play exd4? What are the typical strategies that can arise from this pawn structure? Can black still play for a typical king-side pawn storm?

I'm looking for ideas here. If you know of any illustrative games, that would be helpful.

Thanks a lot!

i actually prefer c5 over e5 in the KID. i guess it`s just a preference though. and i normally will play cxd4 almost right away if my opponent allows. normally he or she does not though.

This looks more like a Benoni.

Isn't this a Modern Benoni?

i actually like it more when my opponent captures the e6 pawn. you`d be surprised at how often that happens.

c5 often becomes a Modern-Benoni type of game and can transpose and it it actually favorable to black if white takes dxe6 and black plays fxe6 -I think with Bxe6, you weaken d5 too much and white has kind of a 'Maroczy Bind' type of position (although it isn't strictly a Maroczy but im trying to say that the d5 break is hard to achieve) + with fxe6 you get more pawns in the center and thats good.

But...you also have to be ready for an Accl. Dragon if you play the 6...c5 line and White goes 7.0-0 cxd4 8.Nxd4, leading to the Maroczy Bind.

Oh and in the main line KID after 6...e5 7.0-0, Black can play 7...Nc6 and that pretty much forces 8.d5 Ne7. Now after 9.b4 (Bayonet Attack- I love this opening as white, lots of fun to me!) Nh5 10. Re1, you have your 10...f5.

One of my favorite lines happens to be an ...exd4 against the fianchetto variation. Here's a little collection from Gligoric that might illustrate some of the plans and ideas of ...exd4

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?playercomp=black&pid=15349&eco=E68&title=Gligoric+playing+King%27s+Indian+%28E68%29+as+Black+

A couple of ideas:

Black gets play against e4, Knight outposts at c5 and e5, if you can push ..a4 then you get play against White's queenside as well.  As for downsides, usually d6 is weak, and play can be cramped, so it's a maneuvering game.

Thanks, PeskyGnat. That was quite helpful. I'll try to study exd4 a bit more. There does seem to bee a bit of shuffling around with the pieces in this variation.

Thanks.

The reason why the pawn strom in kingside is viable in many KID positions is that centre is closed. After exd4 centre is open and usually this means that players need to focus much more attention to fight the centre and there's no time for such pawn storms.

Flank attacks are usually succesfull only when centre is stable enough. Closed centre is usually quite stable (altough one still needs to be vary for possible sacrifices to rip open the centre). This strategem is typical for chess in general - not just for KID.