The Philidor Defense

The Philidor Defense is one of the worst openings for black. Out of 500,000 games collected from 1991, this is rated #10 on the worst openings. The line goes like this: 1. e4, e5 2. Nf3, d6. You can see it below. There are certain advantages for black to it, but most are disadvantages. There are certain games that you should memorize by heart, and this is one of them: The Opera House Massacre (Paul Morphy).

This can turn into some strange games. The problem with this layout is that black has blocked his dark bishop. Even if he fianchettoes, he is still blocked by the e pawn. White has a few good moves here. Option 1 is 3. d4 (the Morphy method). Option 2 is 3. Bc4.

Option 1:

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1

3. Bc4. You can do the Fried Liver Attack. Black might think that it is a good idea to move 3...Nf6 to threaten your e pawn now. This is a BIG MISTAKE. If black plays 3...Nf6, you can move 4. Ng5 and do the Fried Liver Attack. The difference is that black is a move behind. White easily wins. Another advantage to playing 3. Bc4 is a lead in development. White has 2 pieces developed to nothing for black. He doesn't have a lot of good places to go. His dark bishop is useless.

3. d4. This is just as good for different reasons. If 3. pxp, white follows up with 4. Nxp. White has a knight in the center, black still has a blocked bishop. If you take a look to the left at the Opera House Massacre, You will see that after Morphy played 3. d4, the dukes responded by 3...Bg4 pinning the knight on f3. This is normally a good move, but not in this case. You can play it out, but you will notice that Morphy makes checkmate in 17 because of this. People normally like to exchange following up with 4. c5. If white plays 5. Nf3 again, black can safely pin the knight. It is good to exchange the bishop that can't check the king.

Option 2:

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1

The recommended move is 5. Bb5. Common sense tells you to block with the bishop, so black plays 5. Bd7. White should exchange. 6. BxB, QxB. Now, White can safely move the knight to f3 which still controls the center. Black is in a better position and black has a backwards pawn. Both of these options have their advantages, but black has none. Black could also try to defend the e pawn with 3. Nc6 or Nd7. If black plays Nc6, white exchanges everything until he can exchange queens to stop black from castling. With Nd7, the ball is in your court, but black lessened his position. His light bishop is blocked as well as his dark one now.