The King's Indian Defense: Orthodox Variation, Positional Defense, Main Line begins with 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0 Nbd7 8.Re1 c6 9.Bf1 a5 (ECO E96). With 2,308 games on record, the patterns below come from the largest practical sample available.
History and Notable Players
It arises from the King's Indian Defense: Orthodox Variation (7...Nbd7). Among the most prolific White practitioners are Wlodzimierz Schmidt (7 games), Ivan Farago (6 games), Lajos Portisch (4 games). Black-side regulars include Rainer Knaak (10 games), Ivan Nemet (8 games), Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (7 games).
Move Diversity and Theory Depth
Looking at move selection shows how forcing — or not — the position really is. Below 2000 the samples are small (no games at 1200, none at 1400, 7 at 1600, 92 at 1800), so the comparison starts at 2000, with 584 games. There, the top reply is h3, played 23.7% of the time. Five other moves each take at least 5% of games, and the top three moves account for 58.1% of games. Entropy: 3.01. By 2500 (227 games), Rb1 takes over as the top reply at 22.9%; five other moves reach 5% and the top three moves account for 59.5% of games. Entropy drops to 2.88.
Common Mistakes
- Neglecting development — It can feel productive to make extra pawn moves early, but falling behind in piece development is what loses most amateur games — especially in open positions where active pieces find squares fast.
- Letting White own the centre — Hypermodern openings concede central space on purpose, but only if you strike back in time. Delay the counter-blow and you end up squeezed.
Practice on Chessiverse
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