Mastery in the King's Indian- Albin Planinc; A Game From A True Genius

ALBIN PLANINC (1944-2008)

And the game, in general, brought some reflections about this wonderful opening, the King's Indian Defense, which was championed by some of my very favorite players, like Bronstein, Geller, Tal and Nezhmetdinov.

In modern times, Radjabov has championed the King's Indian Defense...here is a nice video in which Radjabov and Sagar Shah discuss this wonderful opening:

Another Champion of the King's Indian Defense was Eduard Gufeld. In the following video he analyses one of his best wins with the Black side of the King's Indian Defense, playing against the Saemisch Attack.

The next example is game 6 from the Tal-Botvinnik World Championship Match in 1960. The diagram shows the move ....Nf4!, which sacrificed a piece to open up the position.

The reason I show game 6 here is because of the Planinc-Barcza game.....in both games, Black starts attacking on the Queenside, but then turns the attack towards the Kingside! Very instructive play by both Tal and Planinc, showing the subtleties of the Kings Indian Defense are almost inscrutable, and that, if you want to succeed in your attack on one flank, sometimes you have to divert the attention to the other flank, or actually attack on both flanks at once! This makes your game more diverse and less one-dimensional.

Here is a video analyzing game 6 of the 1960 Tal-Botvinnik WC Match:

Peace!