Some other ideas for black when white responds to the French with the King's Indian?
My idea is always to blockade the e-pawn by playing e5 myself so as to shut out the white bishop at g2. After that, what are some other typical plans of black?
I realized I missed quite a lot of tactics, partly due to skills, partly due to time pressure (10 min left at move 26 for a cut at 36 moves). E.g. I didn't realize I could play 28...exf4
Happy to be criticized in any aspect of my play. Thanks!
You played a good game.I am not an expert so i give you 3 alternatives. 2)...c5 transposes to a sicilian. 3)...Nf6 or 3)...Be7 can be playable( i do not recommend 3)...c5). Then an interesting idea: 5)...g6.
If you play with Nc6 omitting c5, followed by dxe4: probably a setup with Bc5 in one go is best.
Assuming 16. Nd5 wasn’t played, you have an option to keep your Ne7 put strictly for defensive purposes, which I believe was your intention since you played b6 afterwards - ofcourse this is completely reasonable and is probably the most sound option.
Just food for thought, you might also consider something like 15...c6 (covering the d5 square and now your Knight is free to move, however, it might be a little risky since f5 still needs guarding in case of ideas of white such as Nh4). After c6 you can deploy your bishop to e6, followed up with Nc8-Nd6 and a4 (move order varies depending on what white does). The idea of all this is to gain control of the c4 square and you can further think of doubling on the a-file if something provocative like b3 is played. I haven’t checked any of this with the comp, so some calculation is required to make sure everything works out
In regards to the rest of the game you played pretty well. In terms of improvement, I noticed that whenever you can generate a threat you play it. This is normally very good, but I think you should also spend time looks at your opponents response. For example, 19...Bd4 looks great for black attacking a pawn but before playing it you should think how can my opponent respond. Obvious candidate moves for black may be defending the pawn with the rook or moving the knight to defend with the queen. Using the process of elimination, you should have arrived at the point that Nb3 would be the best response for white, and is able to snap off the bishop pair, sitting in the driver’s seat after the exchange. You mention that you were down on time and missed a few tactics, so I won’t comment on that.
Going back to the opening, I would recommend you look at the chesstempo opening database to find different ways to handle this line by white. Overall, your play was great, and were able to nagivate later parts in a convincing manner in spite of being low on time! :)
You played this well. 15...c6 may be stronger indeed. Here is an example.
Yes, e5 is a good plan there.
