King's Indian Defense: review of the opening. King's Indian Defense
In chess, “INDIAN DEFENSE” is an opening based on the principle of slow, sticky defense by black with flanking development of pieces and the idea of luring white into the center with the aim of gradually bleeding them out. Outwardly, the technique is not very effective, but it leaves connoisseurs with a feeling of reliability and harmony... If we continue the metaphor of the Russian classic publicist Ilya Ehrenburg, who argued that the uniqueness of India lies in its excess: too many temples - over 1200 in Delhi alone; the sun is too hot - in Madras in summer plus 50 in the shade; the excessive greenery of the hills in the North confuses the colors and blinds the eye; there is obvious excess of cows on the streets of Indian megacities - they are a nuisance, they smell bad - then everything said and written about all this separately and taken together will seem no less excessive. About everything, except one thing, perhaps... Have you ever compared people returning from somewhere in Thailand with those returning from India? From the first - serene, satiated with the pleasures of the nightlife capital of Asia, Patnong, and the resort delights of the beaches of Pattaya, talkative. And from the second - thoughtful, stingy in expressing emotions, as if they have learned something, but still cannot explain it...
- How do you like the Taj Mahal?
- Oh-oh!..
-Have you been to the Lotus Temple?
- Mmm-yes!..
-Have you seen pilgrims in Benares?
- Well!..
“This is the Zone! Zone!" - “Stalker” came to mind more than once when I had to observe strange transformations with our people in India. And with different ones - from deep smart people to careless “shuttles”. From old-timers who have worked in this country for two or three terms, to seven-day business trips.
At first, I remember, I was struck by the absurd polemic on the literary pages of two famous writers - the French poet-essayist Henri Michaud and ours, already mentioned at the beginning of the essay, Ilya Ehrenburg. And what suddenly provoked two talented people, who had traveled the length and breadth of India, to extremes? “The sight of an Indian crowd or just Indians standing silently near their houses is always unpleasant or even disgusting... No, an Indian will never understand to what despair he can drive a European...”
By the way, about the British. They seemed to be the first to notice the strange changes happening to their compatriots in India. Those who spent three years or more there, upon returning to the metropolis, the English authorities, just in case, exempted them from judicial responsibility for any crimes, with the exception of especially serious ones. Funny, but true... However, it is difficult to vouch for its authenticity - time has separated us from the heroes of Kipling’s ballads for a whole century. But I believe it: semi-mystical stories about how this country is capable of changing people under certain circumstances can still be told to you by many eyewitnesses today. Moreover, these stories do not necessarily have a sharp plot and fatal consequences.
For example, for a long time I could not understand what was happening to my two glorious friends, knowledgeable, experienced Indologists, every time we set off from Delhi to Kullu - the mountain estate of the Russian artist Nicholas Roerich. No, of course, since probably the time of Vasco da Gama, non-drinking foreigners in India have been a rarity. Some used gin to drive out malaria, others fought spleen with whiskey... One former senior official of the Central Committee, who retrained in Delhi as an activist of Soviet-Indian friendship, I remember even recommended mixing whiskey with beer to relieve homesickness.
Ah, Boris Ivanovich, Boris Ivanovich... Where are you now with your useful recipes and nomenclature nostalgia for those cozy days when you come to the “apparatus” in the morning - it’s bad, bad inside, but - “a glass like a tear... The second one. .. and... as if God spanked my soul with his bare feet...”
But - here it is: young, and completely non-drinking guys began to pump themselves up with the potion long before the approaches to the Himalayas and were already “none” when our jeep drove up to the small, almost toy red-and-yellow temple of Shiva, picturesquely hanging over the frosty from the night frosty mountain slope overgrown with light champak and emerald rhododendrons. Below, at the bottom of the abyss, the Beas, the fastest tributary of the Indus, foamed, easily digesting the first morning snowfall. In the valley of Kullu - “all gods”, translated from the local Hindi dialect, winter was beginning. A friendly pujari - a priest in a smart red toga, as always, performed puja over us, drew a dot between the eyebrows, marking the “third eye” - a necessary, according to local concepts, pass to the Himalayas. It was fun and festive at heart, and the friendly snoring of our dead drunk comrades could be heard from the car. And no matter how many times we visited Kullu, the same number of times they could not remember either the road or what happened in “Estate Nagar”, the mountain estate of the Roerich family. Then I realized what was going on...
By the way, in those years - in the early 90s - we, led by the patriarch of Russian Indology, who had grown together with this country, like Vishnu with his “avatars”, Alexander K-m, came to Kullu to sort out the archives of Nikolai Konstantinovich and his family in the workshop and institute of Himalayan studies “Urusvati”. We were in a hurry to fulfill the will of the last Roerich - Svyatoslav Nikolaevich, who was afraid that after his death all the property of Kullu - along with paintings, books, archaeological collections - would be stolen or fall into unscrupulous hands. Thank God, we managed to disassemble everything, even prepare some exhibits for the current museum of N.K. Roerich in the Himalayas. And report on this work to the old man. The last Roerich died calm for the fate of a unique corner of Russia, living among the snowy Himalayan seven-thousanders, in the very heart of Asia. And it turns out that not everyone is allowed in. Why?
Later, I understood the reason for the strange story that happened to one of my colleagues, a neighbor in Vasant Vihar, a prestigious area in eastern Delhi, where most of the foreign journalists accredited in India lived. K. worked in India for five years. In good faith. Every day he regularly conveyed information about what happened in the Indian echelons of power, what the balance of political forces in the country was on such and such a day, about the intrigues and “behind the scenes” struggle of its leaders, about the exchange rate of the rupee to the dollar. He liked to say that the main thing in the material is the fact, and it is not at all necessary to frame it with “all sorts of adjectives.” K. rarely went anywhere from his perfectly air-conditioned Delhi home-office. He made fun of us when we spontaneously rushed to gaze (for the umpteenth time!) at the Jama Majid Mosque, whose minarets, perfectly calibrated by medieval architects, rising above the chaos and bustle of old Delhi, gave us an often elusive sense of world order and peace. K. laughed at us when we took a break from our daily routine to go for a day or two to Karnataka, to the famous Vittala Temple, just to once again wander between its columns, to guess how these 56 granite giants make noise when you hit them with your hand sounds simultaneously of a tambourine, a drum, winds, and strings - a whole orchestra... And one day we suddenly began to notice that something was wrong with our homebody friend... In his early thirties, he suddenly began to age rapidly . In the tropics everything fades quickly. But K. managed in just two years to turn from a blooming guy into a youthful old man and, moreover, he didn’t even notice it!.. Our colleague left India ahead of schedule: he did something wrong with the accounting department of his agency in Moscow. It was rumored that he was stolen, but we don’t know for sure. But today I am almost certainly sure of something else...
Yes, and Indian identity cannot escape the challenges of the 21st century, the onslaught of the new, the changes penetrating almost into the very foundations of the country, its universe. But - “almost”, but not all of it! The changes do not affect the worldview of its people, the view of the world as the materialization of Cosmic consciousness, the Consistent One. Indians call him Brahman and believe that the spark of his consciousness - the immortal soul - lives in any form of life, traveling from one bodily shell to another. This understanding of the world exists not between the covers of thick, wise tomes, but in Indian everyday life, determining the thoughts and actions of hundreds of millions of people, filling everything they live and breathe with special meaning. You can treat this as a prejudice, you can argue with the theory of Indian exceptionalism, but you cannot brush it aside and disrespect it. One cannot, walking along Benares, as along Broadway, think that the Qutub Minar is similar to the Leaning Tower of Pisa just because it is also tilted... In a word, from those who think that it is oversaturated, and not they “subsoil. ..”, who refuses to accept its rules of the game and imposes its charter on it, the country will turn its back on those. And he will punish someone: some softer, others harshly... This is what happened to many of my friends.
It is simply necessary, in our opinion, when you are going to India, to “debut” prepare for a meeting with her, to unlearn some of your “Indian defenses” from a schematic or philistine attitude towards her morals. From a lack of understanding of the reasons for what infuriated the good French poet Michaud so much. Yes, Hindus, standing aimlessly near their village houses or lazily lounging in their shops, can torment a European with their “biofield” and irritate them with their apathy and laziness. But! Need protection! You need to know at least about “dharma” - one of the mandatory components of a gentleman’s set of Hindu virtues. "Dharma" is piety, life's purpose, duty according to one's nature. The dharma of the wind is to blow, of the rain to fall from the sky, of the stone to be hard, and of the flower to be gentle. Just as the potter’s dharma orders him to make pots, and the village shopkeeper’s order to set up shop under a palm tree and sit under it all day long, regardless of whether there are customers or not!..
Reconciliation with life is not apathy, it is the inability to separate oneself from the struggles and deprivations that will end with the end of this life and with one’s birth in another bodily shell. There, God willing, he will no longer have to carry gravel or sit in a bench. Or maybe in that new life he himself will be a European? “Hello, my future brother!” - the Indian tells you, unceremoniously looking at you with his shiny black eyes. And, believe me, the sight of the Indian crowd will no longer seem as unpleasant to you as it did a minute ago? And even the famous Taj Mahal, circulated in millions of brochures and postcards, will open up to you in a new and unknown way if you protect yourself from tourist stereotypes in time and are in the right mood for a meeting with a living legend. The hot, 260-kilometer road to Agra will no longer be so exhausting; the bakshishi beggars, fakirs, snake catchers and other “near-Taj” tinsel on the way to the miracle will not be distracted. As soon as you enter the gate, you will immediately forget about the Taj illustration in a book or on the cover of a prospectus. Its usual postcard two-dimensionality will be filled for you - not for everyone, mind you, but for you - with air, it will acquire depth and complete virtual harmony. Just now it was miniature, but a few steps towards it, and its minarets will grow. The dome balloon seems to be inflated by a fairy genie. It will seem that the Taj itself is shortening the distance and approaching the person with giant steps, huge - not suppressing him, but dissolving him in himself...
Yes, by the way, there is a mistake in all reference books on the history of the mausoleum: Shah Jahan is presented there as a victim of his youngest son, the villain. But the emperor himself began his reign with the murder (no more or less) of his own brother, the beheading of his uncle and his two nephews - possible contenders for the Mughal throne. He didn’t chop off the heads himself, of course, but he didn’t build the palace-mausoleum himself either, nameless architects built it. But this is true, by the way...
In general, defend yourself, gentlemen!
“If you can’t write, don’t write,” the writer advised. If you can avoid going to India, don’t go, we would add. Don't drive unprotected. Unprotected from the desire to prefer her to churches - shops and shops, to her people - trinkets... Unprotected from the desire to primitively gawk and wander around and the unwillingness to work a little and think at least about why this billion diverse and multilingual, unassuming people live happier than ours today, only 150 million.
difficulty: ★ ★
If you're looking for a simple but effective way to play Black in response to any White move other than 1. e4, then this is definitely worth a look King's Indian Defense. This opening is obtained after the moves 1. d4 Kf6 2. c4 g6 3. Kc3 Cg7 4. e4 d6. See diagram:
Black gives up the center, avoiding immediate contact, but expects to counterattack with explosions of c5 or e5 later. White has many ways of development at his disposal. Let's highlight the main ones.
1) Attack of four pawns
5. f4
Looks menacing. White wants to sweep his opponent off the board with his pawn avalanche. But it's not all doom and gloom for blacks. After an approximate version 5. ... 0-0 6. Kf3 c5 7. d5(In case of 7. dc Q5! Black takes on c5 with the queen from active play, since White doesn’t have time to take on d6 due to the threat of K:e4) e6 8. Ce2 ed 9. ed Cg4 10. 0-0 Kbd7 11. h3 C:f3 12. C:f3 Re8 Black has a comfortable development, and White's pawns are not going any further yet.
2) Saemisch system
5. f3
White's main idea is to play Be3, Qd2, 0-0-0 and then carry out the typical opposite castling: Bh6, h4, g4, h5, etc. Black has a wide choice of counter plans. After castling, you can play Nc6 or c6, a6, b5 or prepare an attack on c5. And the oldest, proven method is this: 5. ... 0-0 6. Ce3 e5 7. d5 Kh5 8. Qd2 f5 etc.
3) Classic system
5. Kf3
White makes a smart developmental move. Then the game usually goes like this: 5. ... 0-0 6. Ce2 e5 7. 0-0(If White captures on e5 twice, then after K:e4 Black wins back the pawn - this trick works in many variations of the King's Indian Defense.) Kc6 8. d5 Ke7.
This option is one of the most popular and important in the King's Indian Defense for both colors. The main plans of the parties are as follows.
White will try to use his spatial advantage on the queenside, undermining Black with b4 and c5. Knight f3 goes through d2 to c4 (after c5) or through e1 to d3. The bishop goes to a3 or e3. At some point, White may capture on d6 and attack the weak pawn, as well as try to invade along the c-file.
Black's plan is to take the f6 knight to h5, e8 or d7, play f5 and return the knight to f6. After White secures the center with f3, Black plays f4 and carries out a pawn assault on White's castling: g5, h5, g4, etc. Such a movement of pawns from one's own king is not so dangerous when the center is closed. In this variation, Black often gives up his queenside to be torn to pieces, betting only on a desperate attack. The strategy is risky, but often works.
4) Averbakh system
White's idea is that in the case of Black's standard play to undermine e5, the f6 knight will be under the pin and it will not be easy to carry out f5. But there are other plans, for example: 5. ... 0-0 6. Qd2 c5 7. d5 e6 8. Cd3 ed 9. cd Kbd7 etc.
5) System 5. h3
Flexible move. It is useful to cover the g4 square from the knight's attacks in order to develop the bishop on e3. Or sometimes White is not averse to playing g2-g4 in order to prevent the f5 explosion. The basic plan for Black is standard for the King's Indian Defense - e7-e5 after castling.
6) Fianchetto system
1. d4 Kf6 2. c4 g6 3. Kc3 Cg7 4. g3
Quiet positioning system. A counter fianchetto more reliably protects the castling position and makes Black's pawn attack on the kingside less attractive. Possible future developments: 4. ... 0-0 5. Bg2 d6 6. Kf3 Kbd7 7. 0-0 e5 8. e4 c6 9. h3 Re8 10. Be3 ed 11. K:d4 Kc5 12. Qs2 a5- White has a little more space, but Black's position is very strong.
A huge advantage of the King's Indian Defense is that it can be played on any of White's first moves except e4. There is no need to learn separately how to react to 1.d4, English opening (1. c4), Reti opening (1. Kf3), etc. You simply fianchetta your bishop and then counterattack the center in one way or another depending on what formation White chooses. As a result, we get asymmetrical combat positions in which it is easier for Black to play for a win than in more “correct” openings, such as . But, of course, nothing comes for free. The center is the center, and a strong opponent can crush him without giving black counterplay a chance to develop. However, the King's Indian Defense remains a very popular opening at all levels, including grandmaster levels.
Good day, dear friend!
A quick question: what chess opening was reflected in the songs of Vladimir Vysotsky? You probably know the answer if you are more or less familiar with the work of Vladimir Semenovich. This is the King's Indian Defense.
“And he destroys my defense, the old Indian one in a moment. This vaguely reminds me of the Indo-Pakistani incident..."
Remember? The unlucky hero of this work played a match with “Slate” and, out of fear, played the classic opening - the King’s Indian Defense.
Now let’s take a break from the poet’s work and return to our chess “land.”
What kind of debut is this?
The King's Indian Defense, one of the most popular and interesting, is obtained as follows:
Black does not prevent White from creating a pawn center, which White shamelessly uses in most variations.
Main idea King's Indian Defense - attacking White's pawn center with pieces with timely support for pawn counterattacks e7-e5, f7-f5, in some variants s7-s5. This is an asymmetrical opening in which Black tries to implement his own counterplay plan.
An important role in the development of black counterplay is played by to the defeated bishop on g7. It is no coincidence that it is called “King’s Indian” . In many variations, White tries to exchange it for his dark-squared bishop, even at the cost of a couple of tempos.
Perhaps I will refrain from listing the names of outstanding chess players - supporters of the King's Indian and opponents for White, who played and are playing this opening in one color or another. For it is easier to list those who bypassed the “old lady”.
So let’s move directly to the debut:
Main options
Four Pawn Variation
White strives to gain maximum advantage in space with the help of a super-powerful pawn center. The idea is clear and logical, but it takes time. Black can and should have time to develop his counterplay.
5…0-0 6.Kf3
Today the most popular continuations for black 6…s5 And 6…Ka6.They most often lead to positions of the Modern-Benoni opening, which we will consider in a separate article.
Example option:
With equal game. Ding Liren – Report , 2013
6…e5 The principle answer is a pawn sacrifice, which White most often rejects.
For example:
With a slight advantage for White
Saemisch system
5.f3
This move characterizes the Semisch system, one of the most famous formations for White in King's Indian.
White creates a powerful pawn fist in the center. In the future, they strive to develop the initiative or on the king's side by advancing pawns g4 And h4-h5, or on the queen's.
Black's play is typical of King's Indian: counter-strikes e7-e5 or s7-s5 and sometimes b7-b5.
Let's consider 5…e5, 5…0-0 , 5…s6
5…e5
Black counterattacks e5 before castling, trying to save tempo.
With a sharp game with mutual chances.
With both chances. Sanguinetti–Fischer . 1959
5…0-0
Black has not yet decided on a plan.
6.Se3
Program move in the Semisch system.
Consider for black 6…Nbd7 And 6…Kc6. It is also possible 6…e5 with the ideas of the previous version.
6…Nbd7
Black is preparing a counterattack s7-s5 and are trying to expand the range of the King's Indian elephant g7.
With approximately equal play. Vitiugov – Mamedov , 2013
6…Kc6
Black takes aim at point d4 while simultaneously preparing a flank operation.
For example:
With approximate equality. Spassky–Nezhmetdinov .1969
Classical system
White creates an expanded pawn center and immediately develops the kingside pieces. White's plan is active actions in the center and on the queenside.
6…e5 The most logical continuation.
7.0-0 The most important thing.
The most popular moves for Black in this position 7…Nbd7 And 7…Ks6
7…Nbd7
Example option:
White has a slight advantage. Knaak – Meking, 1975
7…Ks6
The most modern interpretation of the variation for Black.
With an approximately equal game. Taimanov – Simagin , 1961
Fianchetto
With the help of the flank development of the bishop, White increases pressure on the center and queenside and covers his king.
5.Nf3 0-06.0-0
So far everything is logical and there is no need for special comments, as I believe.
The most popular plans for black: 6….Kbd7 And 6…Ks6
6…Kbd7
7.Kc3 The most common continuation. White reserves his move e2-e4
With some advantage for White.
6…Ks6
The so-called modern version . Black organizes immediate piece pressure on the center and only then complements it with pawn attacks.
7.Ks3 Most common answer from whites
With an approximately equal game.
Brief summary
We briefly reviewed the most popular systems of King's Indian defense.
I would say this: if you like an active, dynamic game, and know how to attack the king, the King’s Indian Defense is a very reasonable choice for Black.
The most typical attacking scenario: with a fixed pawn center с4-d5-e4 among whites and d6-e5 for blacks - promotion f7-f5-f4, then advancing pawns g And h, transferring pieces to the king's side and ramming pawns g And h white king position.
A typical example of such an attack is the party So - Nakamura see section sample batches
White's chances – on the queenside – pawn attack With And b, opening lines and penetrating the opponent’s camp with pieces.
In short, the game is on on a collision course, which promises an interesting and meaningful fight against mutual odds.
Common mistakes and pitfalls
And it’s time for White to surrender. They placed the pieces extremely poorly, contrary to the rules for playing the King's Indian for White.
Black wins an exchange. Here's the King's Indian elephant in action.
The following game is interesting, in which White sacrificed the queen and carried out the decisive attack:
Zakharchenko – Ulanovsky , 2009
Blacks surrendered
Approximate games
Carlsen-Grischuk, Dubai, 2014, 1:0
So - Nakamura, St. Louis, 2015 0:1
Nikolic - Kasparov , New York, 1994 0:1
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King's Indian Defense remains one of the main weapons against 1.d4, when playing to win. This popular defense has had its ups and downs throughout modern practice. This opening was very popular in the 50s, thanks to players such as Bronstein, Geller, Gligoric, whose games gave a big impetus to the development of the theory of the King's Indian Defense.
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7
Later, celebrities such as Mikhail Tal and Bobby Fischer brought even more fame to this debut. However, the King's Indian Defense reached its highest peak in popularity when Garry Kasparov began to use it for Black, having won a fair number of amazing victories against the TOP Grandmasters in the world at that time.
It is worth remembering some of Garry Kasparov's unforgettable games in this opening, especially this remarkable victory against the Dutch GM Piket Jeroen:
Kasparov played 20...g3!, sacrificed a rook and later won after 8 moves.
The list of opponents defeated by Garry Kasparov in this variation is extensive, including A Shirov, Kamsky, Gelfand, Ljubojevic and Korchnoi. However, a few years later, Kasparov began to have some difficulties against Vladimir Kramnik and his favorite line 9.b4, which he later abandoned. Of course, it is difficult to say that this decision was made only for theoretical reasons. Apparently, there was also the issue of changing the repertoire. Since then, the King's Indian Defense is rarely seen on top level. If we consider modern Grandmasters, then only Teimur Radjabov and Hikaru Nakamura use it from time to time with good results.
In this article we will look at several great games in this option and will provide you with some insight into the game plan. We will focus on the position that arises after 8...Ne7, where White has several moves, but we'll look at the basic answer 9.Ne1.
Black attack plan:
After moves:
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Ne1, Black continues 9...Nd7, To prepare f7-f5. 10.Be3 White attacks on the queenside, advancing his Queen's pawns to open the line with c4-c5. 10...f5 11.f3 f4 12.Bf2 g5
In the next position, both sides have clear goals: White “destroys” Black’s queenside, attacking it with pieces and pawns, and Black tries to do the same on the opposite side, where White has the king.
In this variation, Black has a standard plan: Ng6 - Nf6 - Rf7 - Bf8. It is important to know this idea because it is often used, not only after 9.Ne1. IN next game we can appreciate how Black managed to coordinate his forces and win a magnificent victory. Let's look at a game between two famous legends:
Next we will consider a slightly different plan, but very aggressive - transferring the rook to the \"\"h\"\" file using a maneuver Rf6 - Rh6- and then Qe8-Qh5. This direct attack can be very effective, and practice has shown that White needs to be careful. This plan was seen in the following games:
As we can see from the games given here, the Mar del Plata variation of the King's Indian Defense results in a brutal battle with mutual odds. Those who like to take risks and always fight for victory, avoiding drawn positions, can consider the King's Indian Defense as a reliable weapon.
For Time magazine, world champion Viswanathan Anand recalled that chess originated in India, then penetrated into Persia and, finally, into Spain.
In the final paragraph, Anand writes: "...my own career has repeated the history of chess. I learned to play in India, then moved to Spain so that it would be more convenient for me to participate in European tournaments, and became the world champion for the first time in Iran. It’s good to fit in so organically with historical panorama".
Anand argues interestingly, but he does not mention that India is the birthplace of not only chess, but also the so-called “Indian defenses”, the second most important influence of this country on our game .
Vishy Anand...
Most chess players have heard of Indian defenses, but the origin of the name is much less known. It was first mentioned at the end of the 19th century and popularized in the 1920s by Savely Tartakover, who shared in his popular book Ultramodern chess game"(1924) openings beginning with moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 to the "King's Indian Defense" (...d6 and...g6) and the "New Indian Defense" (...e6 and...b6).
Both have gained enormous popularity over time and are still used at the highest level.
Why are they called "Indian"? The answer to this question must be sought in the middle of the 19th century - in Calcutta, the capital of the Indian province of West Bengal. In 1850, most of India was ruled by the British East India Company, whose possessions would become British India only seven years later.
In 1850, Paul Morphy and Wilhelm Steinitz were not yet 15 years old, but John Cochrane, a Scottish lawyer born in 1798, had already published several famous books on chess and played on equal terms with the best chess players of his time (Staunton, Deschapelles and Labourdonnais). , worked as a lawyer in Calcutta.
Much of his career was connected with India, and he also served as president in the 1840s and 1850s Calcutta Chess Club. (In those years, he came up with a knight sacrifice in the Russian game, which is still called the “Cochrane Gambit” in his honor: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7!?.)
Cochrane was upset that he had worthy opponents in the chess club, but one day the Indian gods sent him deliverance.
In 1848, Cochrane was introduced to an ordinary village Brahmin, Maheskandra Bannerjee. The story of his appearance at the Calcutta Chess Club is described in an (anonymous) letter published in The Chess Player's Chronicle in 1851:
Until the beginning of this year, Maheskandra had never been more than twenty miles from his home village. He had never played against truly strong opponents and even barely knew the European rules of chess. Without knowing defeat for a long time, he developed on his own and stubbornly became addicted to the erroneous style of playing the opening, from which he has not recovered to this day.
Maheskandra appeared in Calcutta So: One of the Chess Club members was on a pilgrimage in the fall of 1848 and heard about the village Philidor and how he “never lost.” The chess lover rejoiced at the opportunity to defeat the arrogant one, but the Brahmin won the game. An embarrassed club player brought him to Calcutta and invited Mr. Cochrane to fight him. Mahescandra had never heard of Cochrane, nor of Ruy Lopez, Philidor, Labourdonnais, McDonnell or Staunton!
(This letter also tells us that according to Indian chess rules, only central pawns could move two squares from the starting position, and there was no rule for capturing en passant).
John Cochrane.
Maheskandra immediately received the position of "assistant" in the chess club, and over the next years he played many games with Cochrane, gradually improving in the game. (More often Cochrane won). Cochrane recorded many of the games of Maheskandra and his fellow countrymen; it is in them that we encounter the first examples of the “Indian defense”.
W. Sergent wrote in 1934:
European chess players (...) learned about the Indian defense from Maheskandra and other Indian chess players for whom fianchetto was a natural way of playing.
This natural technique became key in the development of Indian defenses. Here is the earliest example of an Indian defense performed by Maheskandra:
A year later, he improved the opening idea. In front of you - the very first game played by the King's Indian Defense:
In the games of Cochrane and Maheskandra, the King's Indian Defense appears dozens of times. While playing these games, I was amazed at how well Maheskandra understood the basic principles of the opening, which are still relevant today. Look at this position from a game played in 1855:
It is incredible that this position, which looks so natural and harmonious to the modern eye, appeared on the board before Morphy and Steinitz achieved their first successes in chess. At the same time, it is regrettable that neither Morphy nor Steinitz had the opportunity to learn and master these concepts in their own chess development.
Maheskandra also pioneered the use of future Grunfeld's defense:
The Grunfeld Defense is probably the most famous example of a “hypermodernist” opening. Hypermodernism arose in the early 1920s and placed greater emphasis on influencing the center from afar rather than occupying the central squares with pawns in the opening - which was the way Maheskandra and other Indian chess players preferred to play 70 years earlier.
(Makheskandra used similar formations in the first hand, starting the game with the moves 1. Nf3, 2. g3, 3. Bg2 and so on. This opening for White only became popular when Mikhail Chigorin began to develop his royal elephant in this way in the last quarter of the 19th century. Later Richard Reti improved the idea by proposing to meet the answer 1...d5 with a sharp attack 2.c4!)
Now let's move on to the debut, which bears the name of the strongest of all hypermodernists, Aron Nimzowitsch. Yes, you guessed it: Nimzowitsch's defense also used Maheskandra for the first time! This is the batch:
In Maheskandra's games, the opening now known as the Pirts-Ufimtsev defense was also encountered several times: 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 0-0. He was the first to experience the and considered disadvantageous transition to the endgame after 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5!? 4.dxe5 dxe5 5.Qxd8+ Kxd8.
Finally, Maheskandra tried another Nimzowitsch defense - the opening 1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 and then Qd7 and f7-f6. Now this way of playing the opening 1.e4 Nc6 considered the most principled for blacks.
And that's not all. Maheskandra's Indian teammate, a man known only by his first name Somakarana, first used the opening against Cochrane that would become known as the Caro-Kann Defense:
The game was played 36 years before Horatio Caro used this opening (against von Bardeleben in Berlin in 1886).
The history of chess is such that the opening ideas of Indian chess players were not taken seriously by leading chess players in the West until the hypermodernists came onto the scene. But perhaps they continued to live in India. Mysterious Indian chess player Mir Sultan Khan(1905-1966), competed in tournaments precisely during the heyday of hypermodernism (Sultan Khan was born in Punjab, in the territory of modern Pakistan). He showed that Indian concepts and tastes have not disappeared from the practice of Indian chess players.
Sultan Khan, who at first was not even familiar with the “Western” rules of chess, clearly preferred the “Indian” formations in the debut. With White he often used 1.Nf3 and g2-g3, and with Black he preferred the New Indian and Nimzowitsch Defense. Over the years, he began to use other openings.
Sultan Khan at the tournament in Hastings, 1930.
So, (ultra)-modern chess openings owe to Moheskander, Somakarna and their compatriots, who lived in the 19th century, not only by their names.
Vishy Anand has already secured a prominent place in the history of chess, but India's role is not limited to the fact that it became the ancestral home of this game.