Welcome back to Chessopenings.com. Today's video is about the Philidor's defense. The Philidor's defense is a reply to the king's pawn opening which begins with the moves, pawn to e4, pawn to e5, knight at 3 and now pawn to d6, the Philidor's defense. In the Philidor's defense, by defending the pawn on e5 with a pawn, Black avoids some of the usual hassles associated with the move, knight to c6, and then often bishop b5 waiting to the Ruy Lopez. And yet by playing the move, pawn to d6, Black immediately gives up some of his development potential especially regarding the bishop on f8. We'll get a chance to ponder the implications of this and other things during this video. Let's take a look.

The Philidor's defense is employed by Black in the king's pawn game after the moves, e4, e5, knight at 3, and now instead of knight c6 which would be the main line, Black plays d6 and we have the Philidor's defense, the subject of this video. The Philidor's defense is regarded as a somewhat inferior approach to the defense of the e5 pawn. The reasons for this have to do with the fact that bishop on f8 can no longer find an active location outside of the pawn chain, and unlike the move, knight c6, which is the main move, Black has done nothing to increase his defense over the important d4 square, and we'll see that White is able to make use of this factor in just a moment.

On the other hand, because Black has defended the pawn with a pawn, he will find that he does not have to create any weakness for some time to come. Also Black's development tends to flow quite naturally from this position, and it is possible that White may find himself caught by an opponent who knows the ins and outs of this system a little bit better. Today we'll take an upbeat approach to the White side of this position and look at some of the strategic trumps that White has in his favor.

Now at this point White nearly always takes the opportunity to place the strategically valuable move, pawn to d4, and this practically forces Black to play pawn takes pawn on d4, and White recaptures with knight take d4 reaching the following position. The exchange of pawns which took place on the square d4 has benefited White in a couple of ways. In the first place, the move, d2 to d4, itself contributes to the development by increasing the scope of the dark squared bishop and of the queen. Also, White has eliminated Black's most advance central pawn and this leaves White with space advantage in the center. White's bishops each possess a full range of possible squares, whereas Black's bishops, particularly his dark squared bishop. are harder to deploy actively, and due to the exchange on d4 White has gained a free move to bring his knight to a more centralized square on d4, and this also contributes to the mobility of the F pawn which can be used aggressively with f2 to f4 or for defensive purposes with f2 to f3 defending the e4 pawn.

This position has much in common with the Open Sicilian, but notes the important difference that Black does not have an open C file, but instead an open E file. In some ways, this is useful for Black, since he may be able to pressure the e4 pawn along the E line. But mostly, this factor dampens Black's chances of counter-play, since he does not have the pawn majority in the center, nor does he have the open C file, that are the hallmarks of counter-play in the Sicilian.

Now if Black's major issue is the deployment of his dark squared bishop, why then doesn't he simply play g6, and deploy the bishop on g7? It turns out that the move, g6, is a little bit to weakening for the king side pawn cover, and White can directly exploit this fact by first setting up his pieces in a standard attacking formation. This goes knight c3, bishop g7, bishop to e3, knight at 6, queen e2, preparing the queen side castling, Black castles king side, and now White castles queen side. And with the White king safely tucked away on the queen side, White is now able to use his pawns and all of his pieces in an attack against the weakened king side. And one way to do this is to use the g6 pawn as a hook for this attack. White can do this by playing for f3, g4, and h4 to h5 preparing to bring the rook into the attack by opening the file. White can also assist this plan with bishop h6, exchanging bishops on the dark squares, and then making use of the dark squares, in order to continue his attack.

Now, if you're familiar with the Sicilian dragon, you'll know that this position is very similar and you'll know that all of these things are difficult enough to deal with in the Sicilian. But here, it's going to be even more difficult, because Black does not have the open C file, which assists Black in the Sicilian dragon, in gaining rapid compensating pressure on White's position. Therefore, the move, g6, simply turns out to be to weakening, and White can exploit this by castling queen side and setting up his pieces and pawn to directly exploit the weakened king side. Instead, Black almost universally plays knight to f6, and then after knight c3 he plays bishop to e7. And this is a very instructive moment, since White now has quite a few options of about how to proceed. Black's position has no weaknesses, but he also has some problems finding active plans for his pieces, and cannot easily threaten White. White's first goal is to maintain his pleasant spatial advantage. In this position, that means White will want to ensure that Black does not achieve a successful d5 break. Just as important, White wants to be sure that the e4 pawn receives adequate protection. While restraining Black's active possibilities, White will want to develop a plan of gradually developing an attack against the Black position.

One attractive option for White in this position is to play the move, bishop f4, and this combines attack with restraint of the opponent's possibilities. The first basic goal of this move, bishop f4, is simply to help prepare queen side castling, and White will do this with the move, queen b2. But after the moves castling king side and queen to d2, another hidden point of the bishop's placement of f4 is revealed. Black's pawns on the queen side lacks some mobility due to this aggressive placement. For example, Black cannot even really think of the move, pawn to c5, since after knight D to b5, the attack on the d6 pawn would be too strong, and this fact arises partly because of the bishop's active placement on f4. Another example of this same point is that many strong players have also tried the move, pawn to d5, but here, too, the simple reply knight D to b5 has been found to be a very adequate reply, and this again stems from the aggressive placement of the bishop on f4.

On the other hand, White is prepared to advance his king side pawns forward, and to push Black backwards, and also to potentially look for opportunities to create a breach in Black's king side pawn cover. So an example of how play may continue after queen b2, is simply knight to c6 preparing to create a square on e6 for the bishop, castling queen side, knight takes knight on d4, queen takes knight on e4. And now after bishop e6 and pawn to f3, White is ready to continue his plan with g2 to g4. Black has still not gotten very far in creating active possibilities for himself and so White has some advantage.

Bishop f4 then, is a promising plan for White against the Philidor defense. Another promising idea White has is g3, which very logically extends support to the e4 and d5 squares. In fact, White has an excellent score with this plan, since the clamp's positions will be very hard for Black to find a decent planning. Then White can just gradually play for an attack at a later phase of the game. Thus, after Black castles king side, bishop g2, rook e8, castling king side, and now bishop f8 and White often plays h3 here. White generally takes his time positioning his pieces and pawns however he'd like, since White still lacks effective pawn breaks. Quite frequently White still turns to the eventual expansion of his king side pawn majority and wants to create weaknesses near Black's king. g3 and bishop f4 are both in harmony with the overall plan that we described earlier, of restricting Blacks options to move his pawns forward or find any meaningful activity for his pieces, while at the same time preserving a plan, and creating a plan to advance forward into the position.

There's one more move I'd like to discuss. Surprisingly, White's most popular move turns out to be, also, his most questionable move, and that move is bishop to e2. It's easy to assume that White will simply complete development, and a plan will surface on its own, probably in the form of f2 to f4. But after castling king side, and castling king side rook e8, White actually finds in this position, that his options are a bit reduced, because Black's pieces will get a little bit of meaningful activity, in the form of an attack on the e4 pawn. In the variations we saw, beginning with bishop to f4, the move, f2 to f3, was a logical part of White's plan since this move would also support the g2 to g4 thrust, which was a logical part of White's attacking ambitions. In the variation with pawn to g3, the defense of this pawn had already been accounted for by the Fianchetto bishop which was on g2. But in this position, White needs to go a little bit more out of his way to make arrangements for the defense of the e4 pawn, and he does not want to play f2 to f3, since the pawn more likely belongs on f4.

An example of how play can continue is f4, bishop f8, bishop f3, and now in this position, Black actually can play pawn to c5. The knight must retreat, it cannot go to b5 with any threat, so it must retreat to e2, and then after knight to c6, Black is approximately equal. Black never had to worry about nagging pressure on d6, and for his part White hasn't provided much for his dark squared bishop in the way of meaningful opportunities. In general, White has squandered the benefits of his space advantage, because he's had to take a time-out to defend the e4 pawn. This is an excellent lesson in why prophylactic thinking is an essential component of realizing a space advantage, and this simply means looking ahead at the opponent's ideas and taking them into account while crafting your aggressive plan.

I hope you enjoyed this look at the Philidor's defense. We've seen how just a very slight inaccuracy by Black in the opening can be the basis of long- range plans for White. And we've seen how such long ranging plans are formed and also carried out. At the same time, we now have concrete ideas about how to handle these positions with both White and Black. That's all for today. I'll see you next time.

Dereque Kelley - Copyright © 2013 ChessOpenings.com