I'm a beginner who is playing black against a 1,600 Thursday

I'm an older-beginner who has played 10 games against actual people since taking up the game. I lost the first 8 and then won the last two. Chess.com has a lesson series that seemed to have made things click for me. When I play black, I tend to recede into the relative safety of the King's Indian. I'm finding that it only provides an illusion of safety in mid-game. Giving up so much space to white has its disadvantages. I find that many players know how to address the King's Indian by trapping black's queenside pieces. Can anyone recommend a good defense strategy that is more oriented to development? Perhaps a link to a lesson video? Most video lessons on opening strategy seem to be oriented to playing white.

Here's my study on the French Defense. It's good against e4 and my study covers the Advanced and Exchange variations which are the two most common variations for beginners.

GM Daniel Naroditsky has a series of Speedrun videos in which he frequently plays the King's Indian as black, particularly in the later videos. It might give you some ideas. "Speedrun" is a bit of a misnomer. It's a climb up the rating ladder, but the focus is on education rather than speed.

Hi, I think that for total beginner KID is little to hard, try to play slav defence it is easy learnable and you will be able to enter middlegames with normal positions. Best regards Ivan

I wouldn't call myself a TOTAL Beginner. I got into chess because all the poolrooms are closed and I wanted something else to do. I figured that, since I do okay on chess puzzles, maybe I'd be good at the real thing. WRONG! My rating on Chess Tactics Pro is around 1600. It's a different story when playing real games. I played King's Indian because it seemed like a more certain way to survive until the middle game. I found out that trapped pieces weren't much different than captured pieces. I'm planning on fighting more for center control. I'm avoiding the French and the Sicilian because I've read that they are for a more experienced player. I've heard it said that the Sicilian does more harm than good up to around 1800.

The French Defense ideas are rather easy to learn. Simon Williams made an excellent lesson course on it if you want to check that out. 

Just cross your fingers and hope they don't exchange...

I think you largely answered your own question in #6. You can't just learn a bit of something in isolation without playing real games against actual people, and expect magic to happen. I would forget about any dilemmas about this or that or whatever defense as that's not really going to make any difference by Thursday (if ever).

Good luck... 

This game with black peaces is player who can control his peaces and put them on decent squares, i think that KID is great opening but you need to have some chess experience before it becouse i find it easier to play with white peaces. (fianceto line is nightmare for black )

So you can lose lot of games if you are totaly new to chess.

Best regards Ivan

All this talk about the King's Indian and the French and the Sicilian is totally pointless. The opening does not matter at all in the battle of a 1000 rated and an 1600 rated player. The only thing that matters is blunders.

Also, there is a 99% chance that the 1600 guy will win, but in chess (and also in other sports) nothing is certain.

Tonya is on fire on this topic

I agree... if stronger side player of 1600 thinks that he will win 99 percent then 1000 player has bigger chances

To return to the post by OP: the KID is not the opening for easy development. It really depends on the lines that you like to play to answer where the pieces would have to go. 

I presume that you play lines with a quick ...e5, like one of the main lines 1. d4, Nf6; 2. c4, g6; 3. Nc3, Bg7; 4. e4, d6; 5. Nf3, 0-0; 6. Be2, e5 and that your question was directed to this. First caveat: if white plays a different line (for example the Saemisch with f3) or Bg5 lines, you'll need different setups. That's the hard part of openings, especially one like the KID where you're giving white the center first and then want to counterattack. That's why it's not one of the easier openings to play. 

So presuming a ...e5 line, like quoted above, there are 2 options. Black could take exd4 early. In these kind of position you could have a slightly easier time developing. Black can attack the e4 pawn along the half-open e-file. Also black can gain the c5 square for one of the knights by a quick ...a5 and Nd7/a6-c5. The queen could go to c7 (after ...c6 by black). That leaves Bc8, but that's a problem piece. 

If you go for the KID as most would play, that is with 1. d4, Nf6; 2. c4, g6; 3. Nc3, Bg7; 4. e4, d6; 5. Nf3, 0-0; 6. Be2, e5; 7. 0-0, Nc6; 8. d5, Ne7 then the first thing to realize is that you shouldn't try to be defensive. White's space advantage on the queenside is so serious that white will usually find a way to break through. This whole line is build around the kingside attack for black. You need to get going with your f- and g-pawn and hope to break through. That c8 bishop is usually not developed, because it costs time. Also it's an important attacking piece that needs to stay on the board, because it helps get ...g4 through in certain positions.

Thank you all for the amazing help. I've followed this thread closely and gleaned a few thoughts that I think would be helpful. I like the comment about overconfidence on the 1600 side being an advantage. I think that was an element in my first win: (I played black)

In review, I think I won mostly because of my opponent's mistakes. I don't expect to win against a 1600 but I do intend to learn. Anything less than full effort in competition is disrespectful so he'll get my best game. I figure that the more seriously I approach it, the more I'll learn from the experience. My main focus now is to decide if the KID is a fits-all or if I should try to be more conditional on the opening move. The only thing I've figured out on that is 1.e4 requires the starting move of KID to be d6. I'm wondering if I would be better off by just taking my time with basic opening principles for a center game. 

Hello, I recently picked up d4 and c4 and I play the fianchetto against king's indian. Why do you say it is such a nightmare for black? I'm curious to hear input from a strong player.

I find it very hard for black to play becouse his counterplay is reduced to minimum if white plays correctly and one thing that black would like to do is atack white king in this line he can forget about. Plus white has space advantage, i know some players that play KID whole life but doesnt want to go into fiancheto line.

Best regards Ivan