Every Russian Schoolboy Knows: Build your opening repertoire - Part 29: KID Averbakh Part 6

Opening: E73:

Player(s): Yermolinsky, Sharafuddin

The Averbakh System, along with its variants such the Petrosian Variation in the Classical (early d4-d5) and the unnamed h3...Bg5 system, represents a shift in White's approach to combatting the Kings Indian. Instead of focusing on the queenside alone while accepting a certain danger of being checkmated on the kingside (as it comes in the Classical Variation), White employs a strategy of full court press and containment. Playing g2-g4 is an integral part of White's setup. It serves both as a deterrent against f7-f5 (open g-file can be dangerous for the black king) and the basis of future attack with h4-h5. This is what I had to deal with when I took up the Kings Indian in my early twenties, and I had faced a lot of the Averbakh. The theory of that day recommended Black all but abandon his standard plans with e7-e5 and focused solely on Benoni transpositions after c7-c5. I was young and stubborn and I wanted to contradict, so my efforts concentrated on making e7-e5 work (6...h6). The first five videos tell the story of that journey. Some ten years later I was delighted to see my ideas becoming mainstream, as the reply 6..Na6 became the most popular choice. In Part 6 I briefly introduce White's most ambitious plan of 7.f2-f4, a cross of the Averbakh and the Four Pawns Attack. No series on the Averbakh KID can be complete without some coverage of the classical games in the Symmetrical Benoni structure (parts 7-8), but there are some new development there as well (parts 9-10) Enjoy!