The KID is I think one of the hardest to play, maybe after the Benoni. White's attack always seem to come first. This is just to tell you that no, with the semislav you won't have the problems of making a slight positional inaccuracy and losing because of that. You just need to know the key themes.
However, I believe the semislav is just too boring. I played it about 1 year and I really couldn't stand it anymore. Cramped in space, rubbish piece on c8. Why should I work to solve these 2 things while there are other openings that don't have these problems in the first place?
Even after you break with c5 I feel you're nothing but equal. And it's still boring because there's no imbalance. You're just the mirror image with some tempo down. This might be good for top GMs whose only goal with black is to draw, but if you play to have fun I believe there's better openings.
I play the Nimzo and Bogo Indian and I love them.
I also suggest you to look into the Grunfeld, because it seems really fun and cool to play. I can't really comment on it though because I've never studied it and apparently there's a lot of theory.
Ok, I'm a half decent player. Somewhere between 1600 and 1800 I believe.
I play both e4 and d4, and with black, I specialized in several sicilian defenses, with a lot of success, and the King's Indian, with very mixed results. In fact, every time I play the KID against a better opponent, I get crushed.
I am under the impression that, being extremely sharp, the KID is a bit over the top for me. I do like complicated middle games with a lot of pieces on the board and asymetrical play, but I don't like being bashed to death because my positional understanding is not top notch and my knight is badly placed (or whatever might happen as black in the KID). I read a couple of books, that helped for a while, but contrarily to the sicilians, I just don't feel comfortable although I find it very attractive.
I have been thinking of learning the semi slav, because it looks both sound and exciting, but unfortunately, I read somewhere that it's exceptionally hard to master.
What are your thoughts about it? Is it an opening one can play without being a top notch player, or will the same thing happen than with the KID? I have a very good memory, so I am fine with learning some theory; however, when it's about knowing every single line because you have no idea what's going on and get crushed at the first misstep, I get bored very quickly and have the distinct feeling of learning nothing at all.
Do you have any semislav defense books to recommend?