How do you crush the Philidor Defense?

Nice resource Got intrigued by the opening as one of my friends prefers it (and plays it a lot), so I created a tournament to see what people come up with.

Feel free to join me here: https://www.chess.com/tournament/fiddlers-philidor-defence

I have played the philidor many times and is good enough to say that you cannot crush the philidor. I won many otb games with the philidor.

do not try to bust blacks' play , a good philidor player will punish you severely if you try to push for more than a modest advantage.

develop normally, aim for an early d4, but dont release the tension between d4 and e5 too early, castle kingside, my preferred tweak to dealing with philidor, is to play a4-b3-ba3 (a4 stops the b5 push black often wants) while keeping a tight grip on the d5 square. For example, a queen on d2 rook and d1 and bishop on a3 puts a lot of pressure on d6, if this isnt sufficient, consider playing nf3 to h4 and then maybe f5, sometimes with a g3 thrown in (to protect the knight when its on h4 of the e7 bishop). if black stops nf5 you can still aim for f4! pawn thrust with counterplay.

They key is to play patiently, and build up momentum in your position. Philidor's defense (the Parham structure e5,d6 c6 be7-nf6 nbd7 qc7 0-0) gives black a good 10-15 moves of free play, and such players are used to white impatiently trying to get some big edge. But after those initial moves, if white plays prophylactic-ally, and builds up pressure slowly ,blacks position becomes a modest zugswang almost. Philidor players rarely encounter play more patient than theirs! take advantage and develop ideally before you open up the position.