The King's Indian is a hypermodern opening, where Black deliberately allows White control of the centre with pawns, with the view to subsequently challenge it.

In the most critical lines of the King's Indian, White erects an imposing pawn centre with Nc3 followed by e4.

If White resolves the central pawn tension with d5, then Black follows with either ...b5 and queenside play, or ...f5 and an eventual kingside attack.

It is a dynamic opening, exceptionally complex, and a favourite of former world champions Garry Kasparov, Bobby Fischer, and Mikhail Tal, with prominent grandmasters (GMs) Viktor Korchnoi, Miguel Najdorf, Efim Geller, John Nunn, Svetozar Gligorić, Wolfgang Uhlmann, and Ilya Smirin having also contributed much to the theory and practice of this opening.

However, Kramnik himself won a game on the black side of the KID in 2012,[1] and current top players including Hikaru Nakamura, Teimour Radjabov, and Ding Liren play the opening.

One idea for Black here is to relieve their somewhat cramped position by exchanging their light-squared bishop, which is often relegated to a passive role in the King's Indian.

Top players who have used this line for Black include two former World Champions: GMs Mikhail Tal and Boris Spassky.

This often leads to very sharp play with the players castling on opposite wings and attacking each other's kings, as in the Bagirov–Gufeld game given below, though it may also give rise to heavyweight positional struggles.

This line defends the e4-pawn to create a secure centre and enables White to begin an attack kingside with Be3, Qd2, Bh6, g2–g4 and h2–h4.

A practical drawback, however, is that a well-prepared but unambitious White player can often enter lines leading to a forced draw.

However, after 7...cxd4 (preventing the d4-d5 advance) 8.Nxd4 Nc6, the game transposes into the Accelerated Dragon variation of the Sicilian Defence.

The Fianchetto Variation 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.g3 0-0 5.Bg2 d6 6.0-0, is named for White's development of light-squared bishop to g2, and is one of the most popular lines at the grandmaster level, Korchnoi once its most notable practitioner.

Here, Black's normal plan of attack can hardly succeed, as White's kingside is more solidly defended than in most KID variations.

[7] One of the earliest examples: One of the most famous King's Indian games was a brilliancy by the late Ukrainian-American GM Eduard Gufeld, who called it his "Mona Lisa":[9] The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings (ECO) classification of variations of the King's Indian are: