Whats the benefit of a kings indian?

LOL, the guy never once opened  with 1.d4, so what's the point of this thread?

I figure if it gets all closed off at least the middlegame will last longer. 

Just because his question doesn't pertain to him directly doesn't make it a bad question. 

Yeah, is a nice question : whats the benefit of a kings indian? I give him the advantage of the doubt, but we had quite a lot of problems when our second king started to collect africans.

Unfortunately the King's Indians caused us a bit of trouble during a war a while back.

That is what I suspected. They run the gambling joints now?

Yep.  Montezuma's revenge. 

Strange. Your government is normally very careful about industries of strategic importance for the future of the nation.

Yeah, unfortunately though they let pretty much anybody in now...

(Think he's figured out what that thing is yet?)

Know that guy. Can never remember which of the two he is. Waldorf or Statler?

Start looking for games, preferably annotated, in which the KID was played by Fischer and other world-class GMs. I presume people play the KID for the same reasons the SD is played - to give Black more winning chances than less aggressive defenses such as the QGD - Orthodox or Lasker Defense for instance. Of course the flip side of the coin is, more winning chances usually = more losing chances but fewer draws as well.

I play the kid simply for the fact that I don't have time to study openings and kid is a set up you can use no matter what white does really. Yes I agree, your game doesn't look like a kings indian, i thought it was a french then 2...Ne7 wow! The kid is one that GMs sometimes use( like Kasparov played it at least 5 times against Karpov during 1990 match) to reply to d4 opening e.g, 1. d4 Nf6, 2. c4 g6, 3. Nc3 Bg7, white building up a big pawn centre and black will attack it with e5 or c5 to smash it with help fm g7 Bishop. A hypermodern opening that allows white good central control but black believes it can be undermined from flank attacks. Why don't you find out for yourself why and learn that way. Anyway gg!

just to clarify, I had understood kings indian to be any situation where teh following formation is played:

E.g. Pirc, 1. d4 Nf6, sicilian dragon etc.

Whenever black plays this position, white seems to line up the bishop and queen, castle queen side and then launch a kindside attack. My question is, how can black gain any sort of advantage from this position? Sorry if King's Indian is specific to 1.d4 but I hadn't understood that, I thought indian was a name for the formation I've posted.

My question still stands, what sorts of plans can black play when he sets up his kingside in this manner?

just had a similar game:

http://www.chess.com/livechess/game?id=359475243

Seems this formation for the kingside is very vulnerable to attack. What sort of strategy should you play if you play an opening that has this kingside formation?

That sort of Bishop-on-g2/g7/b2/b7 position is called a fianchetto.

As chess players improve their skills, they usually get better at attack faster than they improve defensively... so in games between low ranking players, that sort of attack (line up Bishop and Queen, swap off the fianchettoed Bishop, pry open a file with Pawns, charge in and mate) is quite successful. As the players get better at defensive and prophylactic manoevers, though, the success-rate of that sort of attack will go down. Like the Scholar's Mate, it's a bit too straightforward to work against a skillful opponent.

The usual counter-strategies are to either counter-attack in the center (which will almost always paralyze an opponent's wing attack) or build a barricade with a properly-timed ... h5.

Dawud, you play a nice game. It is however clear that 2 minute games are in no way relevant tests of systems like in this case kings indian attack KIA if it is one. Many mistakes were made by white like not taking undefended pawns or giving away knights... Good fun and good games in 2 minutes, but not something that will help you get a correct opinion on these fianchetto openings. A fianchetto is often a safe house and not more vulnerable than the straight 3 pawns. Keep digging man :-)

Oh man, not another anti-KID thread. This place is full of them!

do you have some example games?

also im aware of fianchetto but what is a fianchetto combined with Nf6/f3 and 0-0 called? I thought that was called a kings indian. I didnt think kings indian was restricted to a queens pawn opening line.

I think the biggest difficulty I have as white facing the King's Indian is just how many variations I need to prepare for. Black has many options and as white you need to be prepared for all of them. 

Yeah, if you're serious about learning this stuff, stop playing 2-min!