<I remember Mal del Plata 1953, When Miguel Najdorf lost to Gligoric’s King’s Indian Defense. Najdorf was in disbelief that White’s tremendous queenside initiative did not win the game. M. Luckis, though quite inferior to Najdorf in playing strength, did explain matters to the grandmaster: “It is simple. The King is more important!”>

The 1950s were an exciting time for the KID revival, after the doldrums of the 1930s and 40s.

It's notable that in many of the games were black crushes white, white makes the decision to close the center and concentrate only on pushing his Queenside pawns. It becomes a race of pawns, but since the receiving end in the kingside is white's King, you often get games like this where white's king gets crushed.

Kasparov was the greatest KID practitioner in the 1980s to 1990s. Here is a typical Kasparov KID win following the model described above.

Ljubojevic vs Kasparov, 1993

Note though that this model or pattern, with black's pawn chain on d6, e5 facing their white counterparts in a closed center, allowing the black f5 thematic pawn push and pawn storm also occurs in other openings. It commonly also occurs in the closed Ruy for instance. And if white is not careful, he could get crushed the same way.

Kasparov quit the KID after Kramnik administered some beatings to him in this opening. Notice though that in Kramnik's KID victories, he never allows black unimpeded kingside play by opening the center and going for strong central and kingside activity himself.

Kramnik vs Kasparov, 1994

Kramnik vs Kasparov, 1994

Kramnik vs Kasparov, 1997

These are the crucial games that may have caused Kasparov to quit the KID.

How did the leading players treat the KID when it first got started in the early 1920s by the hypermoderns (notably Reti). Just to take future world champion Alekhine as an example, he seemed to have instinctively opted to play g3 and fianchetto his king bishop and would exchange his d5 pawn whenever black pushed his e-pawn, thus opening the center. This made it all but impossible for black to do a kingside pawn storm.

Alekhine vs G A Thomas, 1923

Alekhine vs J H Morrison, 1923

Thus you have two world champions, one in the early and the other in the modern era of the KID, both avoiding a closed pawn center.

So it has always seemed to me, as well. And White's wonderful KB in the QP game becomes a glorified pawn for some time.

I assume the White idea is that Black's K-side attack chains all the way back to c7/d6 and that with the correct Q-side 'touch of jiu jitsu' it all comes tumbling down domnino-style.