Beating the King's Indian Defense: strategic ideas? I'm a Queen's Gambit player and quite often I find myself against the King's Indian Defense. Usually all the lines of the Queen's Gambit that lead to a closed center with white playing d5 (King's Indian, Benoni, etc.) result uncomfortable for me; the light-squared bishop is very ugly, I can't seem to exploit my space advantage and black's knights are generally able to exert a great deal of pressure on e4, while I can't really find the precise way to position mines. Perhaps these is because I play badly against the Kings Indian, since I never studied it and I really ignore the general strategic ideas of its main position.

[FEN "r1bq1rk1/pppn1pbp/3p1np1/3Pp3/2P1P3/2N2N2/PP2BPPP/R1BQ1RK1 b - - 0 8"]


This would be a very typical game. What are some key strategical ideas I should know about this position? What is white plan, and what are some correct ways to execute it? I usually lose positionally, not by checkmate. Just get a worse position.
You do not say why you lose: Are you being beaten positionally, or are your opponents successfully attacking your king? 

This a VERY difficult question to answer since it is such a large opening to cover (the Vassilios Kotronias books on the King's Indian from Quality Chess are 5 volumes!).

Basically, what you are looking to do is play on the queenside, and prepare c5 in most lines of the King's Indian, and open the c-file, and penetrate with your pieces. Black, especially in the classical main line, is looking to attack your king.

If you are being beaten positionally, then you really need to study the ideas behind the opening more closely, and that is way beyond the scope of this question. If you are being beaten by all-out assaults, then you need to either learn a lot more theory, or do what I do sometimes: Play g3 and Bg2 lines, which make it more difficult for direct attacks to succeed.

In the position you gave, it is black to move, and he can plant the N on c5, and fortify it with a5, which stops the immediate b4 since Nc5 gains time by attacking e4. I am going to give a few lines to give you an idea of how play might go, but I also think that you should vary on move 8 with 8.Qc2, which is more flexible (make sure you read the extensive note after 9.d5 explaining why this ends up better). 6...Nbd7 is rare for a reason, and your 8.d5 does nothing to try and punish it.

 [FEN ""]

 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nf3 Bg7 4. Nc3 d6 5. e4 O-O 6. Be2 Nbd7 {This is very rare, and can lead to an excellent game for black if white just plays by rote. White should vary on move 8.} 7. O-O e5 8. d5 (8. Qc2 $1 c6 9. d5 {And black has a lot of options, but this is a better setup for white to combat them. One of the following happens: The c-file gets opened and white gets better chances to use the queenside; or a Rd1 will pressure the d6 pawn if black does not exchange; or if that pressure on d6 forces c5, then a3, and b4 will be possible (with Rb1), all the time while black is denied the c5 square for the Nd7.} (9. Be3 {Is also good, but you need to know a lot of theory.})) 8... Nc5 9. Qc2 a5 {Eventually, white wants b3, a3, Rb1, and b4, but you must be careful of tactics with the Rb1 and Nxe4 ideas followed by Bf5. For example:} 10. Bg5 (10. Rb1 $4 Nfxe4 11. Nxe4 Nxe4 12. Qxe4 Bf5 $19) (10. a3 $2 {This is why b3, a3, and only later b4. It cripples the white queenside.} a4) 10... h6 11. Be3 b6 12. Nd2 Bg4 (12... Ng4 13. Bxg4 Bxg4 14. a3 $1 {And b4 next since a4 loses a pawn.} a4 15. Bxc5 bxc5 16. Nxa4 {But black does have some compensation after Qg5.} Qg5 17. f3 Bd7 18. Nc3) 13. f3 Bd7 14. b3 Nh5 15. Rfe1 {To prepare Bf1 after nf4, and white will continue with a3 and b4.}


In the end, it is about opening the queenside while not getting mated. You want to defend any kingside threats as economically as possible, while trying to distract black on the queenside. If you penetrate quickly, and actively, any attack is often doomed to fail.