The Philidor Defense seems like a rock-solid opening. After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6, Black is happy to complete their development without throwing any punches in the opening.
At the amateur level, this strategy works fine. But at higher levels, many avoid playing the Philidor with Black, and for good reasons!
This course will show you exactly how to counter the Philidor Defense covering all the mainlines, sidelines, and gambits step-by-step along with the main ideas...
Below are some of the positions from this course:
After watching the course, you’ll be ready to take the initiative and space in the opening the next time somebody plays the Philidor.
Let’s begin!
What you'll learn
- A full opening repertoire against 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6, covering all important variations, sidelines and ideas.
- How to play with a space advantage and make it harder for Black’s army to breathe.
- The major downsides and flaws in Black's opening strategy.
- Why Philidor Defense is seen rarely in top-level chess events?
- How to convert your opening advantage into a win, explained through model games.
- A novelty to counter a trendy line for Black, covered in the Advanced section and more.
Lesson Plan 103 episode(s)
1. Introduction
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33s
2. 7...Nfd7?
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3m 41s
3. 7...Ne4
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5m 40s
4. The Theory after 7...Ng4
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2m 27s
5. 8...c5?
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3m 26s
6. 8...c6?
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1m 29s
7. 8...0-0
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3m 57s
8. Nice Tactics
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2m 46s
9. 9.Qe2!
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2m 22s
10. 14.Nd5!
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7m 5s
11. Conclusion
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1m 2s
1. Introduction
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1m 14s
2. 4...Ngf6?
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3m 47s
3. 4...Be7
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2m 15s
4. 4...h6? - Boom!
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2m 50s
5. 7...Kf6
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2m 19s
6. The King runs-runs and gets checkmate
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5m 4s
7. 8...Bb4
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1m 5s
8. Black has no defense
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1m 8s
9. 4...c6
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8m 31s
10. Tiviakov S. - Murshed N.
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5m 16s
11. Vachier Lagrave M. - Cossin S.
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11m 1s
12. Ni Hua - Zhang P.
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5m 38s
13. Ni Hua - Wang Chen
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3m 39s
14. The Plan
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55s
15. Mixing the Lines
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1m 1s
16. Conclusion
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2m 41s
1. Black's idea
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1m 11s
2. 5.Qd5!
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3m 31s
3. Black's problems
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3m 13s
4. Chandler M. - Gulko B.
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5m 5s
5. Howell J. - Tepper F.
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5m 56s
6. Howell J. - Chebanon J.
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3m 51s
7. Ionov S. - Yandemirov V.
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4m 19s
8. Conclusion of 3...Nf6
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1m 57s
1. Introduction
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1m 32s
2. 2.Nc3
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2m 27s
3. The 2nd option - 4.Nge2!
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1m 40s
4. Grischuk A. - Fridman D.
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6m 5s
5. Grischuk A. - Agrest E.
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4m 53s
6. Carlsen M. - Radjabov T.
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10m 24s
7. a4 or a3?
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1m 32s
8. 3...Nbd7?
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1m 17s
9. Black Lion
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2m 36s
10. Two Options
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1m 23s
1. Introduction
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1m 4s
2. The ideas
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3m 46s
3. 4...Nf6
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2m 51s
4. 7...Qe7
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5m 18s
5. 7...ed4
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6m 2s
6. 8...Be7
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2m 25s
7. 7.Qe2!
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5m 15s
8. Conclusion of 5...Bd7
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43s
9. 6.Qd4!
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1m 45s
10. Why we go long castle?
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2m 1s
11. A bit more about this position (advanced)
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5m 19s
12. Here is why 4.Nc3! but not 4.Bb5
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1m 45s
13. Transposing to Scotch
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1m 42s
14. 5...g6? - Simagin's variation
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6m 2s
15. 4...Bg4
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3m 5s
16. Review
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2m 32s
1. Introduction
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2m 53s
2. The idea
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2m 46s
3. 12...0-0
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4m 30s
4. 15.g4! - Declaring a war
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2m 12s
5. A few examples
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5m 5s
6. Conclusion of 0-0
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49s
7. The idea of 12...b4
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2m 1s
8. Sacrificing a piece!
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1m 53s
9. The idea
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2m 9s
10. 18...Kf8
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1m 43s
11. 18...Ke7
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3m 15s
12. Why Qc3?
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55s
13. 15...0-0
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3m 32s
14. 15...Qc7
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2m 10s
15. In Tal's style
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4m 28s
16. 15...c5
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1m 7s
17. Black's best try
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6m 10s
18. 12...Qc7
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2m 20s
19. Done! :)
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1m 30s
4.9
Students give this course an average of 4.9 out of 5 stars.