Beating the Philodor defense?

hello,

new player, chess enthusiast. I can't seem to find any good books or dvd's on beating the Philodor defense. Surprisingly there is little on the subject, except on wikipedia. I was hoping someone knew of a dvd on this opening. even a book. I appreciate ANY info or advice. In advance thank you all for your help.

I don't know too much about it. I usually try opposite side castling for kingside attacks. Here is a video I saw recently on a similar pawn structure to the Philidor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1gWIfVajlM

The video is a little over 50 minutes and the opening is the Pirc but the pawn structure changes quickly.

thank you TitanCG. im going to check it out now. A good link I found very recently is at http://exeterchessclub.org.uk/content/lessons-philidors-defence.

Check it out and see if you think its good.

Here's the best answer:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Philidor-Files-Detailed-Coverage/dp/1857444361

Covers everything you need to know to master the opening, whether you be playing White or Black.  This is an objective, theoretical work, and research will be required for success.  This isn't one of those pansy "hold my hand" repertoire books.

Assuming your bullet rating is more or less representative of your chess ability, the following advice will help you to improve more than any book about the Philidor will. Ignore it at your own risk.

1-Stop playing bullet. It is impossible to focus with such short time controls.

2-Stop focusing on the opening. The opening is not a concern if you hang pieces every other move. Just follow basic opening principles.

3-Play much, much more than you read books. A 90-10% distribution between play and study (ie DVDs, books, internet, even analysis) is too muchstudy for a beginner.

I agree with all but #3.

It should be 50-50 between book studying and playing, BUT, that book studying should be basic endings, basic tactics, and game collections from players 100 years ago or earlier, like Steinitz, Lasker, and Capablanca instead of Kasparov, Karpov, and Kramnik.

Books like "Winning Chess Tactics" and "Winning Chess Strategies" by Seiriwan, for example.  An endgame book that's not super dense like Fundamental chess endings is.  Something simpler on Endings.  Classics on strategy and calculation, like "The Inner Game of Chess" by Andrew Soltis.

Also, forget just eliminating bullet.  Severely limit your blitz too.  I have what?  300 blitz games or so on here.  I have over 2100 games over the board of time controls like G/90, 35/90 SD/60, 40/120 SD/60, G/120+30 sec increment per move, a few that are G/60 etc.

In the Philidor Defense there is the line 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 f5
which is quite dangerous for White. Master Jim West wrote a book
on this gambit, however he says that there are several known
busts to this gambit. But it would be very difficult to find the
refutation over the board with the clock ticking. He says it is
better than playing a Sicilian Defense where a much lower rated
can give you a difficult game with GM analysis. His results with
the Black side has been excellent because it forces his opponent
to think on their own for every move.

I thought everyone knew various ways to punish 3...f5.

I always throw my Knight onto g5 and push e6.

4.dxe5 fxe4?! 5.Ng5 d5? 6.e6 +/-

Of course 4... or 5...Nc6 is better, but then Black admits that 3...f5 was stupid.

I was under-whelmed by this book.  I picked it up for a vote chess game with Philidor's as Black, but it is lacking in coverage of critical White tries.  For instance after 1. e4 e5  2. Nf3 d6  3. d4 exd4  4. Qxd4 a6  5. Bf4 Nc6  6. Qd2 Nf6  7. Nc3 Be7  8. 0-0 0-0-0 Bauer questionably opines "the chances are level" but even if he is correct he doesn't even mention 8. Be2 or better yet 6. Qe3.  As to the latter the following game was played the year before the book was published and just because Black won doesn't mean White wasn't better until throwing away his advantage with 10. Nd5 and 11. Nxe7?; better was 10. h3 Nge5  11. Nd5! and then just about anything other than 12. Nxe7?

Timman then won with 5. Bf4 and 6. Qe3 the following year, admittedly the year the book was published but that is part of the point I guess: the book is already outdated having been published 7 years ago.  Furthermore, while ignoring other more reasonable lines of play, it wastes precious space on other stuff, like 2 pages on the craptastic 3. d4 Qe7?!  

4. Qxd4 is perfectly viable, and after 4...a6  5. Qa4+!? b5??  6. Bxb5+ will pick you up some blitz points on occasion.  Below is the Timman game in the 5. Bf4 & 6. Qe3 line: 6...Nge7?! is not a move worth repeating. 

imposs

I want to thank everybody for their advie and links. To answer one guys question. No, obviously im not bullet expierienced. actually im inbetween 1650-1800 in regular chess. I got sucked into bullet because I thought I learn something and I sure did with all of your guys help. Many Thanx to especially Thriller Fan and IronTiger.

Good news! I have a much easier time dealing with the phillidor defense. My last bullet game went very smoothly. I kept in mind what you guys told me( especially from Sharrock i hope I spelled his name right.) I found that capturing with the knight instead of the Queen works much better. Once agin thank you guys, you all are awesome!