Hanham Philidor

no, but i think ill go to borders and get that book. it sounds like its a good one, is it.

In the past, I have played this opening quite a bit with the Black pieces.  Mostly, I used the move order 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Nd7 4.Bc4 c6 and almost always ...Be7 before ...Nf6.  I think that if your opponent is not a master level player, the passivity that results from the Hanham is not so important and in most cases proves to be temporary.  (Sometimes, extremely temporary).  As long as you know where your counterplay is likely to come from, it will eventually come.

I have found that players below master level generally tend to attack the Hanham Philidor very aggressively.  They know that top players don't play 2...d6 and think it is therefore very weak and needs to be punished.  Which is, psychologically, quite handy since it is actually very solid.

Stronger players, however, tend to develop normally, play a4 and h6 at the appropriate times, suppress all counterplay, and turn your passivity into a slow, methodical, positional crushing.

Basically, the tendency for players up to and even above the 2000 rating level to want to punish it (often leading to an overly aggressive treatment), coupled with the straightforward strategic plans available to Black, made this a very attractive option for me.  I had some great successes with it.  (And some miserable failures). 

I'd recommend it highly for games against players below master level.  But I have to admit that strong players don't seem to have much trouble with it.  It doesn't tend to threaten anything... and at FIDE 2183, you may find it to be only partially useful.