Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: A new concept in the King's Indian

by Robert Ris
1/29/2021 – In this week's show, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a close look at a new concept in the King's Indian Defense that Fabiano Caruana used to beat Radoslaw Wojtaszek in round 9 of the Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk aan Zee. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
Pattern recognition is an important tool in modern chess, as it helps you to understand better the characteristics of a position. Particularly when you have been confronted with a surprise opening system played by your opponent, it helps when you can just

King's Indian Defense with 7...Bg4 in the Main Line

The game between Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Fabiano Caruana in round 9 of the Tata Steel Masters featured a fascinating middlegame concept in the King's Indian: Black voluntarily gave up his black-squared bishop but afterwards had full control over the dark-squares.

It seems that Caruana managed to surprise his usually well-prepared opponent with 7...Bg4 in the opening. This rare move has been played by quite a number of strong grandmasters in online games and this was its first test at the highest level. Enough reason to have a closer look at this sideline of the King's Indian to discuss the ins and outs of this surprising idea.

But first a warm-up: Can you finish the game as precisely as Caruana?

 

You can move the pieces on the live diagram!

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Robert is on air every other Thursday at 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET / 16:00 EST)

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Robert is an International Master who mostly spends his time training and coaching talented youngsters. On the PlayChess server The Fast and the Furious is a popular show where he explains sharp opening lines for a wider audience. He is also a well-known ChessBase author who produced numerous DVDs and regularly contributes to ChessBase Magazine as well. Since 2015 he is the organizer of the Dutch Rapid Championships in his home town Amstelveen. He has started a YouTube channel with chess analysis as well.

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