Starting Out: King's Indian

Rating:
Summary: Good introduction to the King's Indian
Review: I found this introduction to the King's Indian to be excellent. I do not ordinarily play the King's Indian, so I can't compare really say if the variations were complete or not, but I feel much more comfortable with the general ideas of the KI now than I was before I read the book.

I'm very rapidly becoming a fan of the starting out: series from everyman, and can't recommend them highly enough for someone who wants a very broad overview of an opening. Once you find what you like, you can get more specialized opening books. Drawbacks? The main one is the lack of a variation index. I'd place level of book to be in the 1200-1600 range, but really suitable for anyone who wants an overview of the main ideas behind the principle variations.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book To Start On With KID
Review: I liked this book a lot.I am somewhere between beginner to intemidiate level and I have learned most of my chess by following championship games online. Reading this book allowed me to understand the concepts behind this opening very clearly and in a normal laymans terms. This book just proved to be a perfect one for me to understand KID, though I used to play it without knowing it really well or not understanding what I am doing :) The focus in the book is incredible. All the main lines are covered and unlike other books which go on listing all sorts of variations under main line making it difficult to digest with cryptic analysis, here author never loses the focus. He tells main concepts behind particular move orders in the variation, stops at a point where variations may occur, tells you the possible important variations, and then continues with the main line by giveing examples of games and then adding his comments in between of moves making sure that he gives enough to make one understand. Then he deals with important variations one at a time individually in separate sections in similar manner making it very easy to follow.
May be not a perfect book for a professional or someone who expects entire reportire of KID. Its not meant for that either. But a great way to START ON with.
Only one reason why I have put 4 stars is - one amazon wouldnt allow me to put 4 and half and two... for taking half point away from author is that, I was expecting 2/3 important games in KID played between kramnik and kasparov. Author does mention them but I it would have been great to see analysis of those games in here.
In all a great book to start with.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book To Start On With KID
Review: I liked this book a lot.I am somewhere between beginner to intermidiate level and I have learned most of my chess by following championship games online. Reading this book allowed me to understand the concepts behind this opening very clearly and in a normal laymans terms. This book just proved to be a perfect one for me to understand KID, when I used to play it without knowing it really well or not understanding what I am doing :) The focus in the book is incredible. All the main lines are covered and unlike other books which go on listing all sorts of variations under main line making it difficult to digest with cryptic analysis, here author never loses the focus. He tells main concepts behind particular move orders in the main line, stops at a point where variations may occur, tells you the possible important variations, and then continues with the main line by giving examples of games and then adding his comments in between of moves making sure that he gives enough details to make one understand. Then he deals with important variations one at a time individually in separate sections in similar manner making it very easy to follow.
May be not a perfect book for a professional or someone who expects entire reportire of KID. Its not meant for that either. But a great way to START ON with.
Only one reason why I have put 4 stars is - one, amazon wouldnt allow me to put 4 and half and two, I was expecting 2/3 important games in KID played between kramnik and kasparov. Author does mention them but it would have been great to see analysis of those in this here.
In all a great book to start with.

Rating:
Summary: The first book on the KID for anyone
Review: Joe Gallagher's book Starting Out: The Kings Indian Defense, is a marvelous openings book for beginners and intermediate players alike. Gallagher focuses on the important things like the ideas behind the moves, the strategies, the tactical ideas that develop in the various structures and variations of the KID.

The KID is one of the most important defenses in chess, and has been played by many great champions including Kasparov and Fischer. Fischer in fact used it exclusively throughout his chess career. The KID offers black a fighting chance for more than a draw against d4, and is flexible enough to be used against many other non e4 openings.

GM Gallagher presents the newest lines in a clear manner, He offers suggestions as to what variation might be best for you the reader. He provides invaluable tips and warnings throughout the book. The first 4 chapters are on the Classical Variation. He follows that with a chapter each on the Samisch, Fianchetto, Four Pawns, and Averbakh variations. The last two chapters are devoted to white's early h2-3, and "other" systems.

While this book is not meant to be a thorough treatist on the KID, it is an excellent starting place, and allows the reader to begin playing the KID well, quickly. This book is supposed to be a beginners guide to the KID, not a beginners guide to opening a chess game. However, a beginner would do well to jump into this book and this defense quickly after blitzing through a good beginners book like Capablanca's Chess Fundamentals.

Everyman's Starting Out series looks like a good one. I love this book and have since ordered Starting Out: The Caro Kann also by Joe Gallagher (Since I also play the Caro, and have for years), and have recently ordered Starting Out: The Sicilian by John Emms since I am searching for a more aggresive defense to e4 to complement my d4 KID repertiore.

In closing, I highly recommend this book, and suggest following it up with Mastering the Kings Indian Defense By Robert Bellin and Pietro Ponzetto. After that plnge into more complicated theory based works if you desire more, but thoses two volumes alone should serve you well for a long time, and help make you a dangerous player verses d4.

Rating:
Summary: How opening books should be written
Review: Most players, until they are rated at least 1800 (US) , should only own a general chess opening reference book (MCO, NCO) to use as a reference. Such players would be better studying the middle and endgames.

This book is a most notable exception. It covers the King's Indian Defense. It is written clearly; with sections on the different subvariations; generously annotated in *words*. This is exactly the sort of thing any player, but especially a beginner, intermediate, or club player, needs to read.

After these sections comes a game or two, lightly annotated. No need to bombard the reader at this point. Just show him what a typical game in the variation looks like, with pithy notes so as not to overwhelm the reader.

Gallagher has written on this defense before so he's an expert on it. This is an added bonus for the reader. It is written lucidly.

More advanced players could use this book as a supplement to more specialized tomes. Less experienced players could read this for their own enjoyment, or with the goal in mind of learning the opening, and/or with the idea to buy specialized books on the variations covered in this book.

Rating:
Summary: Great book!!
Review: This book was exactly what I was looking for to understand the KID and enjoy at the same time reading. The book is layed out where he explains the ideas of the variations to about move 12 and then stops to give you statistics and amount of theory and then gives about 2 or 3 games, and later in the chapter goes over some subvariations that can arise. Gallagher explains the ideas of the opening that I never understood in a simple manner. But this book isn't as simple and beginner-ish as it may sound. For instance, I have been playing chess fairly regularly for the past 4 years (but never really played the KID) and I have learned a great deal from this book! It is for players who look through MCO or NCO and don't get why Black (or White) makes this or that move and/or just don't understand the plan Black or White has in mind. The KID is complicated and easy to get lost in, and if you don't have some primer to understand each variation to a descent degree as this book gives you then moving on to more advanced KID books will be a waste of money and a headache. Anyone can get something out of this book, especially if they have a good working knowledge of chess like what you would find in Reaccess your Chess for example (great book too!!). So if don't like playing passive defence as black and like aggresive/counterattack play, then buy this book and learn the KID.

Rating:
Summary: Great book!!
Review: This book was exactly what I was looking for to understand the KID and enjoy at the same time reading. The book is layed out where he explains the ideas of the variations to about move 12 and then stops to give you statistics and amount of theory and then gives about 2 or 3 games, and later in the chapter goes over some subvariations that can arise. Gallagher explains the ideas of the opening that I never understood in a simple manner. But this book isn't as simple and beginner-ish as it may sound. For instance, I have been playing chess fairly regularly for the past 4 years (but never really played the KID) and I have learned a great deal from this book! It is for players who look through MCO or NCO and don't get why Black (or White) makes this or that move and/or just don't understand the plan Black or White has in mind. The KID is complicated and easy to get lost in, and if you don't have some primer to understand each variation to a descent degree as this book gives you then moving on to more advanced KID books will be a waste of money and a headache. Anyone can get something out of this book, especially if they have a good working knowledge of chess like what you would find in Reaccess your Chess for example (great book too!!). So if don't like playing passive defence as black and like aggresive/counterattack play, then buy this book and learn the KID.