6.f3 wins a tempo. Then you follow up with a Bf4, Qd2 plan with Black a turn behind as no development of the light-squared bishop is useful here. It's probably not what you normally do against the Philidor but Black is giving you help so you may as well take the offer.
Philidor's Defense Variation (e4 e5 Nf3 d6 d4 exd4 Nxd4 Nf6 Nc3 Bg4+?!)
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Hi all,
My opponent in a blitz game recently played a line in the Philidor Defense that I hadn't seen before as follows:
Out of interest, I checked the Game Explorer Database after the game, and found that the move had never been played in master level play out of roughly 1800 games. The move looks logical/natural to me, and after looking at the position, I couldn't figure out what is so poor about it. Could somebody please offer insight and the best reply for white?