Chess Openings – Petrov Defense
Petrov Defense has been played since ancient times although it is known to be popularized by the Russian player Alexander Petrov. Kevin explains in this video at www.thechesswebsite.com, that black tries to mirror the first two opening moves from white hoping for a draw. This defense has a reputation of being dull even though parts of it has some interesting attacking moves.
The Petrov Defense starts with pawn e4 to which black responds with e5 and then white moves the knight from g1 to f3. Now we see black again reflect back the same move from white with moving knight to f6. Black applies this strategy to mainly bring the game to a draw and even avoid Ruy Lopez, Giuoco Piano and other Italian games.
Over here the black needs to be extremely careful while the white can capitalize if the black makes any mistake. The first mistake white can coax black to commit is by capturing the black pawn in e5 with its knight, which the black may respond to get even. This is the point where white can take advantage by placing the queen in e2 which will force black to retreat the knight back to f6. At this point white still has the advantage to push its knight from e5 to c6 which poses a clear attack on the black king and queen. This is a beautiful strategy where the black king is checked by the white queen in e2 and at the same time the knight is attacking black queen in d1 and also e7 square which is the only vacant space for the queen to move.
