Modern Chess Openings: King's Indian Defence
The King's Indian Defence is a razor sharp and double-edged opening that is employed by many players today, all the way from beginner to grandmaster. One of the big reasons for its popularity is the rich tactical games in which it so often leads, allowing black to play for the win without huge risk.
The program from Convekta covers the Averbakh System, Classical System, Fianchetto Variation, Four Pawns' Attack, and Saemisch system. Like many Convekta products, it uses their tree like structure.
This program is divided into 3 parts: Kings Indian, Games, and Opening Encyclopedia. In "Kings Indian" there are two parts. The first of which is a database of 846(!) annotated games in the King's Indian Defence - a great tool when learning a new opening. Second is the core instruction in the program; a tree containing a great deal of explanation on the ideas and typical ideas of play. Some features are... A tree containing a list of variations with each sub-variation having key games listed and lightly annotated for review. Two sections giving typical pawn structures, both open and closed, and the plans for both sides. Several sections on the typical plans and ideas in the popular variations. Each major variation has several different options for black, all providing excellent coverage. And finally a test mode where you can test you abilities, mainly tactical, at 50 training positions.
(Test Position)
The next section of this program, "Games", is a large database of 51,717 games some of which are annotated.
(Game Database)
The last section in the program is the "Opening Encyclopedia". This also is divided into two parts. First is a list of ECO sorted lines. Clicking on one of the ECO codes brings up an impressive amount of analysis in the lines that fall under that ECO. It shows many common tries and proves to be a nice swift reference to check the validity of a specific line. The other section is basically the same material but it is classified under the openings names and moves, making it easier for those who are just starting out.
(Openings Listed by ECO)
(Openings Listed by Name and Moves)
Overall this CD is a great tool for learning and studying this popular opening. Unlike many works, this one presents the plans and ideas for both colors as well as showing the reader several different promising lines against the openings. The great quantity and depth of this material makes it most effective towards better players as it may be above the head of many beginners. The excellent coverage and the affordable price make it a superb choice.
NSG rating = 9.7 of 10