The King’s Indian can be a tough opening for white to meet. Black seeks dynamic counterplay, often with white’s king in the crosshairs. Many of white’s most ambitious tries involve considerable risk of a disaster on the kingside.
The Samisch variation is an interesting attempt to frustrate black’s designs and take the game down a different path. It is characterized by the move 5. f3:
In this Opening Overview, we’re going to take a look at some of the most common ways play can develop from here.
Black has three main ways he can approach the Samisch:
Transposition: play …c5 and opt for a Benoni structure.
Denial: act like nothing special has happened, and continue in typical King’s Indian style with …e5 followed by playing for a kingside attack.
Subtlety: play for queenside expansion with a6 and b5.
Transposition
Transposing to a Benoni is one of black’s most popular options.
We’re going to focus on 6. Nge2 in this article. 6. Be3 allows black to play c5 immediately as a pawn sacrifice.
After 6. Nge2, black still usually plays c5. Here, however, white is slightly better prepared to transpose to a Benoni with d5, since he hasn’t yet committed his dark squared bishop. We’ll see why this is important shortly.
We now see one of the points behind playing 6. Nge2 instead of 6. Be3: white is able to bring his bishop to g5 in one move, thereby also thwarting black’s h5-h4 idea. Let’s see how Alexander Graf vs. Ulrich Weber from the 2017 Bundesliga continued.
In general, it seems that white’s space advantage and monolithic g2-f3-e4-d5 pawn chain should give him a pleasant position in these lines.
Denial
A typical plan in the King’s Indian is to play e7-e5, invite white to close the center, and then follow up with f7-f5 and a kingside pawn storm. Black can attempt to play this way in the Samisch, but things are often not as straightforward as in other lines.
Subtlety
Black can also forego an immediate e5 or c5 pawn break in favor of a subtler and more flexible setup where he plays moves like Nc6, a6, Rb8, and Bd7. Black might then break with b7-b5, or he might still go for e7-e5 at the right moment.
Let’s see what happens if black opts for e7-e5 on the 10th move.
Next time you encounter the dreaded King’s Indian Defense, try spoiling your opponent’s fun with 5.f3!
