Samisch King's Indian: Leveling up

Amir Afsai physics2112 Lichess Samisch King's Indian Gemini generated image

The teachers' room at our school has three desktop computers. A couple months ago the one on the right started shutting down abruptly in the middle of powering up, then a month later the middle computer began experiencing powerup failures, and last week the failures spread to the computer on the left. Since it's only at work that the environment exists for me to bring my A-game to the chess board, my wartime streak is on hold until further notice.

Instead, why not polish up my opening repertoire? The Samisch Variation has long been my weapon of choice against the King's Indian Defense. Against inexperienced players it leads to quick checkmates: White trades off the dark-square bishes early, and by the time Black recognizes the danger to his king from White's pawn storm, he is helpless to stop the invasion of White's major pieces on the h-file. Victories in this vein have made me spoiled, lazy and superficial. More experienced opponents delay castling, find ways to avoid trading bishes, or storm my position on the queenside. I like the Samisch for its sharpness and relative obscurity, but it's a double-edged sword and too often I'm the one it cuts.

Part 1: STROOM-MOORTS (2026-03-27)

Amir Afsai physics2112 v. STROOM-MOORTS Lichess Blitz 2026-03-27 Move 16
Position 1: White to move

Game began 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6, and it is interesting to note that the engine recommends 3.h4 as the top continuation. Even more interesting is that 3.h4 is known as the Anti-Grunfeld. Why is that interesting? Because on those rare occasions when I face the Grunfeld I typically get bulldozed before I know what hit me. 3.h4 is a sideline to file away for future exploration.

Back to the game, we continued 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 and 5.f3, and Black played the puzzling 5...Nh5. Proceeding with the usual plan, I parked my bish with 6.Be3 en-route to h6, and Black correctly struck at the center with 6...e5. The engine wanted 7.dxe5 because Black wasted a tempo moving his knight and if he rechops with 7...dxe5 then we exchange queens and Black's king is vulnerable and if he rechops with 7...Bxe5 then he will waste even more tempos with his bish. I played the nonconfrontational 7.d5, for the moment locking the center and blunting Black's dark-square bish. Black should have struck at the center again with 7...f5, shifting the onus onto me: Do we exchange with 8.exf5 gxf5 and Black gains space and an open file on the kingside or do I ignore and allow 8...f3? Instead, Black struck with 7...c6 -- which I correctly ignored, but in favor of the weakening 8.g4, as it allowed 8...Nf4. Did I forgo 9.Nh3 because I saw Black had a tactic with 9...Nxh3 10.Bxh3 Qh4+? Probably not, but regardless 9.Nge2 was the safer way of challenging Black's knight. Perhaps seeking to overprotect f4, Black pushed 9...g5, subsequent to which we both played top moves with 10.h4 h5 11.hxg5 Qxg5, but I missed that Black's d-pawn was undefended, inviting 12.dxc6. Instead, I added pressure on the c1-h6 diag with 12.Qd2. My advantage surged to +3.2 after Black's 12...Nd7, and here I did find 13.dxc6, but after Black rechopped with 13...bxc6 the engine disapproves of my 14.Qxd6. Black traded his f4-knight for my e3-bish with 14...Ng2+ 15.Bxg2 Qxe3, and I chopped another pawn with 16.Qxc6. After 16...Rb8, threatening 17...Rxb2, my advantage stood at +2.8. It sunk to 0.0 after 18.Rxh5.

1. Why did I choose 18.Rxh5?
I had two attackers on Black's h5-pawn, which was only defended once; and if Black were to rechop, I would have two passed pawns on the board. Moreover, if Black were to preempt 18...hxg4, then 19.fxg4 would result in two iso pawns. Also, while my rook on h1 did not have a path to activation, Black's rook could activate with 18...Rh6.

2. Why is my move not ideal?
What the engine doesn't like about trading the rooks off the h-file is that Black's dark-square bish can maneuver to h4 and team up with the queen to harass my king.

3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?
The engine's top moves are 18.gxh5 and 18.Nd5. The former would resolve the pawn tension described above while keeping the h-rooks on the board and deterring Black's bish from rerouting to h4. The latter would force Black's queen to move, potentially allowing my king to castle long, and the knight could continue to c7 with check.

Amir Afsai physics2112 v. STROOM-MOORTS Lichess Blitz 2026-03-27 move 18
Position 2: White to move

1. Why did I choose 19.Qb5?
2. Why is my move not ideal?
3. Why is the better move better than my chosen move?

Part 2: Double-U2 (2026-03-24)

Part 3: akark98 (2026-03-22)

Part 4: itsme417 (2026-03-07)

Part 5: Mr09 (2026-02-25)

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