This was a bitter disappointment. I'm not sure what I expected, but this surely wasn't it! Perhaps I wanted real analysis, new ideas, or advanced insight (after all, Bronstein is one of the original KID pioneers). None of this was forthcoming. In fact, this book won't teach you anything about the King's Indian as far as actual variations go.

So far, I've painted a dismal portrait. However, there is a light at the end of this KID tunnel. I liked the old KID games given in part one, in particular the Tarrasch contest from 1885 (I wasn't familiar with it). I also felt that part two was very useful for players under 1800. Here the author lists the functions of each piece and pawn, telling you what it will do, and where it belongs. Part three is even better: Bronstein gives us 36 standard moves of the Black pieces (telling us where they go and why they go there), 24 standard moves of the Black pawns, 36 standard moves of the White pieces, and 24 standard moves of the White pawns. Part four is useful as well, offering us various tests so that we can see if we understood the basics given to us beforehand.

All this sets the seeds for an excellent instructional manual on the ins and outs of the KID. However, Bronstein apparently lost interest here, and fills the rest of the book up with his own KID games. This, of course, isn't a bad thing. Bronstein played this opening magnificently, and many of these games are truly wonderful. Unfortunately, the notes are very basic and lazy, and the lack of clear opening variations (even simple ones would have helped) might leave the amateur in the dark about how to start a game.

Click to see Bauer's review of this book.

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