King's Indian WARFARE

King's Indian Warfare

This is not a repertoire book but something rarer: a master class in the King’s Indian told through the games of a lifelong expert. Grandmaster Ilya Smirin has played the King’s Indian his whole career, and here he annotates his best efforts with it — with a foreword by his friend and compatriot Boris Gelfand.

The selection is thematic rather than theoretical. Chapters group the games by the ideas that make the King’s Indian so dangerous: the long-range power of the dark-squared bishop, opening lines toward the enemy king, deliberately wrecking your own pawn structure for activity, nimble knight manoeuvres, and the famous "kamikaze" rook sacrifices of the kingside attack. A highlight is his mini-match record against former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, which Smirin won 2½–1½.

Because the lessons come through complete, deeply annotated games, you absorb not just moves but the attacking instinct and judgement behind them — including, refreshingly, a chapter on two of his favourite losses, where the same fire backfired.

Ideal for club players and above who already play, or want to understand, the King’s Indian as an attacking weapon. Read it for inspiration and pattern-knowledge rather than line-by-line preparation.