The Philidor Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves (in algebraic notation): Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... Image File history File links This image is used in the standard chess diagram template. ... The first moves of a chess game are the opening moves, collectively referred to as the opening. ... Algebraic chess notation is the method used today by all competition chess organizations and most books, magazines, and newspapers to record and describe the play of chess games. ...

1.e4 e5

2.Nf3 d6.

Named after the 18th century player François-André Danican Philidor, it has the reputation of being solid if somewhat unambitious. (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... François-André Danican Philidor (September 1, 1726 - August 31, 1795) was a French chess player and composer. ...

White usually plays 3.d4 because after most other moves Black can equalise quickly with 3...f5. After 3.d4 Black has several options. One of the most common is 3...exd4, an old move that was abandoned for a while but has been revived. After 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3, Black normally plays ...Be7 and ...O-O with a characteristically solid but passive position, but can also fianchetto his bishop on g7 (Bent Larsen tried this in a few games, including a draw against Mikhail Tal in 1969). In chess the fianchetto (Italian little flanking) is a pattern of development wherein a bishop is developed to the second rank of the adjacent knight file, the knight pawn having been moved one or two squares forward. ... Bent Larsen Bent Larsen (born March 4, 1935) is a Danish chess player. ... Mikhail Tal Mikhail Nekhemievich Tal (Latvian: Mihails Tāls, Russian: Михаил Нехемьевич Таль) (November 9, 1936 - June 28, 1992), born in Riga, Latvia, was the eighth World Chess Champion. ...

The other main option for Black is to maintain the central tension and adopt a setup with ...Nbd7, ...Be7 and ...c6. This plan is called the Hanham Variation and was favored by Nimzowitsch. A common line is 3...Nf6 4.Nc3 Nbd7 5.Bc4 Be7 6.O-O (6.Ng5 is an interesting alternative: after 6...O-O 7.Bxf7+ Rxf7 8.Ne6 Qe8 9.Nxc7 Qd8 10.Nxa8, White is material up, but Black can develop a strong initiative after, for example, 10...b5 11.Nxb5 Qa5+) 6...O-O 7.a4 (to prevent ...b5) 7...c6. Aron Nimzowitsch (also Nimzovich or Niemzowitsch) (November 7, 1886, Riga – March 16, 1935, Denmark) was a Latvian chess grandmaster. ...

A more aggressive approach for black is 3...f5 (after 3.d4), a move which Philidor himself recommended. This can lead to more open positions than the other lines, but is less often seen.

Black should not play 3...Bg4?, as he will be forced to trade bishop for knight with serious loss of time after 4.dxe5 Bxf3 5.Qxf3 dxe5 6.Bc4, followed by 7. Qb3. The "natural" 6... Nf6 costs a pawn. This was played in the famous "opera box game", when Paul Morphy as White declined to win the pawn but retained a strong initiative after 7...Qe7 8.Nc3. The Opera Game was a famous chess game played in 1858 between the American chess master Paul Morphy and two strong amateurs, the German noble Karl, Duke of Brunswick and the French aristocrat Count Isouard, who consulted, playing together as partners against Morphy. ... Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837 - July 10, 1884), The Pride and Sorrow of Chess, is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his time, an unofficial World Champion and, is considered by many, including some grandmasters (see below) the greatest chessplayer who has ever lived. ... This page explains commonly used terms in chess in alphabetical order. ...

An alternative approach for White is to play 3.Bc4, and either delay d4 or forego it altogether and instead play d3.

As of 2004, there are no top players who employ the Philidor Defence with any regularity, although Etienne Bacrot and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu have occasionally experimented with it. 2004(MMIV) is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Etienne Bacrot (born January 22, 1983) is a French chess grandmaster. ... Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (born August 1, 1976) is a Romanian chess player. ...

The ECO code for Philidor Defence is C41. The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings (ECO) is a book collection (now also a computer database) describing chess openings. ...