The Ultimate King's Indian Attack [Paperback]

Angus Dunnington (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 3, 1998

A favorite of Bobby Fischer, this is an all-purpose opening system that sidesteps book lines and produces a dynamic position.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Batsford; Expanded Rev edition (July 3, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0713482222
• ISBN-13: 978-0713482225
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #480,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why play the King's Indian Attack, August 11, 2002

By 

Geofrey H. Strayer (Altadena, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Ultimate King's Indian Attack (Paperback)

If you play the King's Indian Defense against 1.d4, and if you are not a chess professional who has time to study the latest novelties on move 20 of the main-line Najdorf or the Smyslov variation of the Slav, the King's Indian Attack is, in my opinon, an excellent choice for an opening repertoire for White.

Let us be clear on what the King's Indian Attack is not. It is no miracle opening, which will promise you a clear advantage against best play for Black. However, even if you are a professional chess player, and you have time to learn the latest theory concerning (for example) all replies to 1.e4, your search for a clear opening advantage against players of equal strength and knowledge is likely to lead to disappointment. I am a FIDE 2360 player ("Geof" on ICC) who personally dreads studying openings (like many chess players, I have a job and a life in which chess plays a small but not insignificant part) and who would rather spend what limited time I have to study chess on studying endgames and tactics.

What the King's Indian Attack does offer you is an opening in which understanding of key King's Indian themes and positions, as opposed to rote memorization, and the existence of a variety of viable options for White, will provide you with opportunities for creating positions, often asymmetrical and double-edged, which you understand better than your opponent. It is an opening which has been employed by players of the highest level, which is unquestionably sound, and which abounds in strategic and tactical subtleties. You could do worse.

I have been playing the King's Indian for many years (15+) and, although my knowledge of the latest developments in main-line theory may be lacking, I believe I have a fairly good understanding of many of the standard King's Indian structures. When I started playing the King's Indian Attack as White several years ago, I was pleasantly surprised at the way in which my understanding of the King's Indian as Black translated into an understanding of many of the themes of the King's Indian Attack as White.

The above is in the way of an introduction to my review of Angus Dunnington's book "The Ultimate King's Indian Attack." I personally found that this book to be an excellent combination of theoretical lines, strategic insights, and (last but not least) some very nice games. While it appears to me to be targeted, in terms of analysis, to players of the 2000+ level who have some familiarity with King's Indian positions, I also believe that weaker players (or those less familiar with the King's Indian) will find it rewarding if they spend the time to closely examine the complete games that are included and Dunnington's excellent notes.

If you want an opening repertoire which will lead to many victories straight out of the opening, I suggest you choose 1.e4 and spend the 4 or 5 years of full-time study (if you are a reasonably strong player) which are necessary to give you a solid understanding of all the possible defenses thereto. If you want a flexible opening for which you can achieve the same level of understanding in a small fraction of that time, but which is nevertheless replete with tense and tricky positions, you cannot do better than choose the King's Indian Attack. And, in my personal opinion, Dunnington's book is the best one to have been written on this opening. I highly recommend it.

- Geof Strayer

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great overview of an entire system, August 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Ultimate King's Indian Attack (Paperback)

This is one of my favorite opening books. The author does an excellent job of explaining key concepts in words - much preferable to the forest of cryptic variations found in so many books. (I am a USCF 2000 player.)

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quite good, but not the definitive book on KIA, January 9, 2005

By 

Jordi Garcia (Girona, Catalunya) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ultimate King's Indian Attack (Paperback)

I bought this book three years ago. The key concepts of KIA are well explained so I started to use this opening in my games. After been playing this opening for three years I've arrived to some conclusions. First, it's a very good book to understand the key concepts, which help you to start playing the KIA very soon. Second, as another reviewer has already pointed, it's too much White-Biased. Too much optimistic, the practice has showed me that there are a lot of black schemes that were not included in the book. For example, don't expect to find games with the flexible black structure c5-d6-e6 with knight on e7... a very usual position that I have to face quite often on the board. Another example: with the black structure c5-d6-e5 don't expect to find a well-played game by black, that is, h6 first (preventing Ng5) in order to play Be6 and then expand with f5 and sometimes with d5. It's a very common development plan, and I think it deserved attention on it in the book.

Well, to cut a long story short... if you want to play KIA this is a very good book, I recommend it to you. A fantastic starting point... but there is more behind the scenes, other work and research needs to be done to complement the material of the book and for to cover all the possibilities that you'll have to face playing this very interesting opening.

Good luck!!