The Petroff Defence. Your Thoughts.

The Petroff Defence is my favourite opening in Chess. I know exactly how to play it as white and black. It all depends on who takes advantage of it better. Usually that person is me.

This is one of my more recent games where I successfully played the Petroff as black. This game is merely here to show how effective it can be for black if your opponent doesn't know what they're doing.

This is what happens if white is smart enough to see past your attack.

Comments and good games are appreciated in this forum. 

In the first game why not play 5.-, d6 and win the pinned knight?

Or 6. ... d6

Knight escapes because of e4 pawn protection. Eliminate that and you win the knight afterwards. You only win the knight if black has failed to protect their monarch from check.

ok but in the game you post you could have won the knight by playing d6 I think its on the 6th move, not 5th move as I posted. White had played Qf3, Nf6, Bg5 and here d6 seems to win the knight. Its pinned. White will most likely play Bxf6 but you take with g-pawn and the knight is still pinned and lost.

Yes, that is entirely possible, but highly unlikely if my opponent were to be anywhere near my rating at the time. They would have seen it, and defended with Be2 or Be3. I would prefer we analyze the game in our brains from now on so we don't fill up the forum with discussion of the game I played. That activity is reserved for the Game Analysis forums.

Does it have to do with the fact that it blocks the dark-squared bishop and prevent a quick and "proper" development and ultimately achieves nothing for black unless white slips up and plays Nf3 or some other bad move or is this just a run on sentence?

no more sicilianka gg

I think the russian game is the most principled move after e4 e5

as a bonus to being principled begineers often dont play it due to its reputation

3.. d6 is defintely more common

So what's the point of using the Petroff Defense, besides the fact that it cuts out about half the theory of 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 (EDIT: 2.Nf3 Nc6)? People aren't prepared?

And why do the GMs not play the Petroff more? Sorry if you've heard these questions a thousand times.

3..d6 is passive that's why it's not played as often, but you see it all the time by low rated club players

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 is the Petroff Defense.  I'm assuming that you meant 2. ... Nc6.

At the GM level, it was typically used as an easier route to equality than the Spanish, however when equality is achieved, there is very little winning chances in the position ... thus it's reputation for being drawish.  It's fallen out of favor since the advent of the new Berlin which offers more nuance in the endgame and a chance for black to win.

At the amateur level, it's just an easy and great way to get an open game as black, and if you're more skilled in the endgame than your opponent, it's a great way to get to an endgame.  Nothing more and nothing less.

3 ... d6 (in the 3. Nxe5 variation) is by far (orders of magnitude) the most commonly played move, at every level.  I'm not sure how you consider it passive.

Yes. Thank you. I'll add an edit.

Oh sorry I was thinking of the philidor..

Check out some games by Karpov. He played the Petrov Defense many time, after all, he is Russian

Karpov wrote a book on it: Winning With the Petroff back in 1993.

Thanks. Anything similar that is a complete system against 1.d4 etc.?

In the '80s I owned a really good book on the Petroff I liked, which explained some of the ideas as well as the moves, in all the main variations. It was an older book with a soft brown cover, but I can't think of the name or author. It wasn't "The Petroff Defense" by Hagg and Forintos, though that one looks similar. I know my info is not of much help, except if somebody spots such a book online I can probably tell you if that's the one I had that I liked, and at least you know that at least one really good book on the Petroff is out there.