Indian defences and the English Opening

A game on lichess.org, 2014. Black has built a King's Indian setup: pawns on d6 and g6, a bishop on g7, the king castled. White has occupied c4 and e4 with pawns, and their knight has jumped to d5, right into the centre. The black queen stands on c6. White to move.

The d5 square in this position is a hole: no black pawn can attack it, and the white knight stands there firmly. From the centre it reaches e7, c7, b6 and f6. Weak squares in front of your own pawns are a common price of the Indian defences. Black gives the opponent the centre hoping to undermine it later, and if the break does not come off, White's pieces occupy the squares that were left.

The centre from a distance

In earlier chapters Black answered 1. e4 and 1. d4 with a pawn in the centre: 1… e5, 1… d5, 1… e6 with …d5. At the start of the 20th century this approach was considered the only correct one. Siegbert Tarrasch preached it: occupy the centre with pawns, and everything else will follow.

In the 1920s a group of players led by Aron Nimzowitsch and Richard Réti offered another view. The centre can be controlled by pieces from a distance: a knight from f6, a bishop from g7 or b7. Let the opponent occupy the centre with pawns; they can be attacked later, and a big centre becomes a target. This movement was called hypermodernism. The Indian defences grew out of it.

The loudest victory of the new ideas is considered to be Réti–Capablanca at the New York tournament of 1924. Réti began with 1. Nf3, in no hurry to occupy the centre, and beat the world champion, who had not lost a single game for several years before that. After this, hypermodern ideas stopped looking like an oddity and entered the practice of the strongest players.

The name "Indian defences" comes from the games of the 19th-century Indian player Moheschunder Bannerjee, who often put his bishops in a fianchetto. Today almost all these defences begin with 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 and differ in Black's third move.

The King's Indian Defence

The King's Indian is the sharpest of the Indian defences. Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov loved it. Black fianchettoes the bishop on g7, castles and lets White build a big centre with c4, d4 and e4. Then Black strikes at it with …e5.

Once the centre is closed, a race begins, like the one we saw in the Sicilian. White advances on the queenside with b4 and c5 and presses down the c-file. Black throws the kingside pawns forward, …f5, …f4 and …g5, and goes for White's king.

Such positions demand accurate calculation from both sides. Black often sacrifices a pawn or even a piece to open lines around White's king, and White answers with a breakthrough on the queenside and an invasion by the rooks. If White wants to avoid this race, they choose the Sämisch Variation with f3: the f3 pawn reinforces the e4 pawn, and the break …f5 loses its force. In the position at the start of the chapter White has exactly the pawns c4, e4 and f3.

In the King's Indian the centre often locks early, and a careless move can leave a piece undefended. In the game below the white queen stood on c2, and a black knight had already taken the d4 square.

The Nimzo-Indian Defence

If Black answers 2. c4 with 2… e6 and White continues 3. Nc3, then 3… Bb4 leads to the Nimzo-Indian Defence, named after Nimzowitsch. It is one of the most respected defences against 1. d4: many world champions have played it.

Black often gives up the bishop for the knight voluntarily: …Bxc3+. After bxc3 White has two bishops but doubled pawns on the c-file. The whole Nimzo-Indian is an argument over what matters more: the bishop pair or a healthy pawn structure. White tries to open the position for the bishops, Black tries to keep it closed and attack the weak c-pawns.

The pin on c3 is dangerous if White's a1 rook is undefended. The bishop that takes the knight with check immediately attacks the rook along the diagonal.

Besides 4. Qc2 White has the quiet 4. e3, the Rubinstein system. White accepts doubled pawns but develops quickly and prepares Bd3, Ne2 or Nf3 and castling. Black answers with …c5 or …d5, trades bishop for knight at a convenient moment and presses on the weak c-pawns. Games in this line go on for a long time without a clear edge and are decided by fine manoeuvring.

The Queen's Indian, the Grünfeld and the Benoni

If White avoids the pin and plays 3. Nf3, Black often chooses the Queen's Indian, 3… b6. The bishop comes out to b7 and hits e4 from the long diagonal. It is a quiet and solid defence in which Black rarely takes risks.

The Queen's Indian and the Nimzo-Indian share one idea: Black fights for the e4 square. The f6 knight, the b7 bishop or the pin with the b4 bishop keep White from playing e4 without losses. Until White has a pawn on e4, their centre stays incomplete, and Black develops the pieces calmly.

The Grünfeld Defence, 2… g6 and 3… d5 after 3. Nc3, is hypermodernism in its purest form. The Austrian Ernst Grünfeld introduced it in 1922. Black lets White trade on d5 and put pawns on c3, d4 and e4, and then strikes at the centre with …c5 and the g7 bishop. White's centre looks mighty, but if it is undermined, White is left with weak pawns.

In the Benoni Defence, 2… c5, Black strikes at the d4 pawn at once. White usually pushes it to d5 and gains space, and Black gets a pawn majority on the queenside and the long diagonal for the g7 bishop. Black often has the queen or a rook on the e-file, and White can conveniently line up a battery against them.

A close relative of the Benoni is the Volga Gambit, more often called the Benko Gambit outside Russia: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 b5. Black gives up the b-pawn to open the a- and b-files for the rooks. The compensation is long-term: Black presses on White's queenside right into the endgame, and many players consider it sufficient.

The Dutch Defence, 1… f5, stands apart: Black hits e4 with a pawn at once and prepares a kingside attack. The price is the weakened e8–h5 diagonal and the e6 square. A white queen that reaches e6 can end up right next to the king.

The Budapest Gambit

The Indian defences also have a sharp offshoot, the Budapest Gambit: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5. Black gives up a pawn to develop quickly and attack the e5 pawn. At top level the Budapest is rare, but in fast amateur games it is dangerous: many White players do not know the precise answer and fall into traps within the first ten moves.

Its best-known trap arises after natural moves: 3. dxe5 Ng4 4. Bf4 Nc6 5. Nf3 Bb4+ 6. Nbd2 Qe7 7. a3 Ngxe5. The b4 bishop is attacked by a pawn, and it seems it can simply be taken.

The English Opening

The move 1. c4 is called the English Opening. The name comes from the Englishman Howard Staunton, who played it in his 1843 match against Saint-Amant. White hits d5 from the side and postpones deciding where to put the central pawns. The English often transposes into the Queen's Gambit or the Indian defences, but it has a life of its own too.

In the English White often puts the bishop on g2. It hits the long diagonal all the way to a8 and, together with the c3 knight, presses on d5. If a black piece lands on d5 without protection, White takes it.

Black answers 1. c4 not only with 1… e5. The Symmetrical Variation, 1… c5, leads to calm positions where both sides fianchetto their bishops and fight for d5 and d4. The move 1… Nf6 often transposes into the Indian defences, and 1… e6 with …d5 into the Queen's Gambit. So a player who opens with the English as White should know the structures from this chapter and the previous one.

Typical mistakes

In the Indian defences Black most often goes wrong by giving up the centre and forgetting to undermine it. Hypermodernism allows the opponent to occupy the centre but obliges you to strike at it later: …e5 in the King's Indian, …c5 in the Grünfeld, …d5 or …c5 in the Nimzo-Indian. Without a break, White's big centre simply smothers Black's pieces.

The second mistake is holes. The moves …g6, …d6 and …c5 leave squares that Black's pawns no longer defend, like d5 in the game at the start of the chapter. A white knight on such a square can stay there until the end of the game. Before moving a pawn, look at which squares in front of it will be left undefended.

White goes wrong by hurrying. A big centre needs support: if the d4 and e4 pawns stand without the backing of pieces, the break …c5 or …e5 smashes them. White's second common mistake is forgetting about the pin …Bb4 and the undefended a1 rook.

How to choose

If you like sharp play and attacking the king, try the King's Indian: its plans are clear, though mistakes cost a lot. If you want solidity, choose the Nimzo-Indian or the Queen's Indian. The Grünfeld is better left for later: it requires a lot of precise theory.

White should have an answer to each of the main systems. It is convenient to play 3. Nf3, sidestepping the Nimzo-Indian, or to choose a system like the London from the previous chapter: it works against 1… Nf6 too. The English is a good choice for those who want to avoid the theory of 1. d4 and 1. e4 and play on understanding.

Do not be put off by how many Indian defences there are. A few ideas unite them: the fianchetto, the fight for e4, undermining the centre with the c- or e-pawn. Once you understand these ideas in one defence, you will recognise them in another. A player who has learned the King's Indian will quickly find their way in the Benoni, and an expert in the Nimzo-Indian in the Queen's Indian.

As before, test yourself on your own games. Play a few games with your chosen defence and check on the analysis page where you made the break and whether it came in time.

What's next

We have covered the main openings after 1. e4, 1. d4 and 1. c4. What remains is to build your own repertoire from them: choose one answer to each of the opponent's moves and work out how to study it. That is the subject of the next chapter.