kaynight wrote:
Ok
...
What do you think of the Petrov?
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I'm going to annotate some Petrov games.
rdecredico wrote:
Great against strong players not as good against weaker.
What do you mean?
The Petrov is a fantastic opening. Very dynamic, very fun. I guess the "problem" is there are white lines like 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Ne5 d6 4. Nf3 Ne4 5. Qe2?!, where the Queens are coming off and, of course, White has absolutely nothing, but Black doesn't have a lot of serious winning chances. No strong players will play that line, but weaker players may, and you have to be mentally ready for that! You also have to know how to handle berserk gambit approaches like 1. e4 e5 2. f4!? and 1. e4 e5 2. d4 ed 3. c3, but yes, the Petrov is great.
Petrov is like the Berlin...strong defense, but nobody ever wants to play either of them. Just try to get a votechess team to play one of them ;)...it's like pulling teeth.
The Petrov is more dynamic than the Berlin, which just aims to hold a slightly worse ending in the main line, but does so quite well... So well in fact that most GMs play 4. d3 to avoid that ending!
clunney wrote:
The Petrov is more dynamic than the Berlin, which just aims to hold a slightly worse ending in the main line, but does so quite well... So well in fact that most GMs play 4. d3 to avoid that ending!
Well, this is true, but some break the wall. Caruana broke it against Carlsen at Shamkir. While it is true that Carlsen blundered a pawn, Caruana still needed very precise technique to take home the full point.
It was my main opening against 1.e4 for a long time and I think that the game that arises from it is very drawish if you follow the mainline.
Hello!
I've recently contemplated changing from the Caro-Kann to the Petrov as my main defense against 1.e4. I think it's cool.