King's Indian Attack: Why does no one use it but me?

That's swell!

I started Kings indian attack vs the french recently, it seems very effective.

That's because most French players don't study it.

To answer the original question, many players avoid it because ways for Black to get a good game are now well known, and it does not set Black many difficult opening problems.

Karpov played this with White and did ok. White is supposed to be a little better with the early Ne5 plan. 

it is good for chess players very good for starting out i play it frequntly alos the vienna game the rei and the english staunton system my basic crop rotation in french and caro lines you need to play 2 d3 first nbd2 then g3 bg2 so you can retake on e4 with pawn without exchanging queens

You might want to employ some punctuation in that paragraph.

abcdefgh 12345678 -=+x#RBNQK this is all punchu8tion you need to know from chess

You want chess advice and punctuation, too?

To properly annotate my games, you would need to add the "?" punctuation to that character set.

It might come back into fashion when we start getting Carlsen immitators.The kings indian attack that is.

you dont need to know theory to play it

Nice game.

Because it is very weak with 2 exceptions.

Using it via 1.Nf3 is not good at all. Reverse Fianchetto, Reverse Saemisch, and lines where the Bishop comes out to g4 are all good for Black.

There are 2 cases where the KIA is legitimate, but you cannot get this every time, and so the KIA does not work as a standalone system. They both come from the 1.e4 move order.

An example of failure is after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d3? Nc6 4.g3 etc and Black with get in ...Bg4 at some point with a strong position and a slight advantage.

The Kings Indian Attack has the same dependence to it as the Colle System and the Catalan for it to work. Black's Light-Squared Bishop must be blocked. White's entire idea is a kingside attack on the basis of the weak light squares and a full army - particularly the Queen, Knights, Light-Squared Bishop, and then the Dark-Squared Bishop for sacrificial reasons if Black plays h6. Black wants to trade off that LSB for White's LSB or a Knight.

So for the KIA to be effective, Black's LSB must be blocked BEHIND his own pawn chain. This occurs in two openings.

1) e6-Sicilians - 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d3 Nc6 4.g3 g6 5.Bg2 Bg7 6.O-O d5 7.Nbd2 Nge7 8.Re1 and now 8...b6 is best, I believe with Qc7 to follow, but not positive there. Castling too soon with the committal 8...O-O is bad due to a raging attack that White gets, BUT NOT VIA 9.e5? Due to 9...g5! Advantage Black. Proceed as normal getting the pieces to the kingside. Hence why 8...b6 is better. Note that I might be slightly off on the order of Black's moves - not a Sicilian player, but the position is right at the end of White's 8th move)

2) French Defense - 1.e4 e6 2.d3 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.Ngf3 c5 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2 Be7 7.O-O O-O 8.Re1 b5 9.e5 Nd7 10.Nf1 a5 11.h4 b4 12.N1h2 Ba6 and now 13.Bf4 a4 or 13.Ng4 Nd4 or 13.Ng5 Qe8.

I am often on the Black side of number 2. It is a race of White going for the king and Black destroying the Queenside. If Black survives the onslaught, he usually wins as endgames favor him.

Outside of the e6-Sicilians and the French, the Kings Indian Attack is a very weak proposition, and is why you don't see it much. I do know someone at the club I play at that specifically plays it ONLY against the French, not even e6-Sicilians. It is a good suggestion for those that play the Moscow and Rossilimo that need something for 2...e6 since 3.Bb5 is useless against that.

I don't like 13...Re8 at all for Black. Against that offbeat Bh3, I'd be looking at 13...Qb6, both possibly covering e6 with a knight move if a sacrifice on e6 ever became a threat, or possibly a move like 13...Nd4, but more likely to favor the former as while 14.Nxd4 cxd4 is a non-issue, something like 14.c3 Nf5 15.Bxf5 exf5 might be too weakening, allowing e6 as a clearance sacrifice of some sort, but White is without his LSB in that case.

It would be a long think for me at the board, but surely not 13...Re8.

And 1978, huh? You must be older than me as I was only 3 then.

That was a fun looking game blueemu. It makes me want to learn the basics of the KIA & try it if I ever return to otb.

And that was a good summation of it's deficiencies Patrick. Especially the issue with the lsb, that's very important info to weigh in planning.

You would have been six years old when I won the Closed Championship of the Atlantic Provinces.

I haven't been able to find many games in this Bh3 side-line.

Here's a really strange one, where White wins an endgame with four Pawns vs a Rook and Knight:

It's because the No King's Indian Attack, or NOKIA, is much stronger, and you can even play games on it!

You forgot O