Why is Philidor's Defence so popular at < 1300 levels?

if someone has never looked at the opening rules its probably the most natural way. defending a pawn with another pawn.

[Comment Deleted. I was too tired to see that you were discussing the Philidor rather than the Petrov.]

Beginners don't know this trick.

It's not about the berlin or whether they know it or not. It's just very common at lower levels that people are worried about the e5 pawn.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

John Littlewood, an acclaimed English coach, teaches the Philidor to his students. As long as they learn the tricks, it can be quite a useful opening. Personally, I don't teach the opening to my students, except from the White side.

Littlewood focuses on tactics and traps, and he looks at it from both sides. There are quite a few really cool opening traps in the Philidor.

There's nothing wrong with the Philidor's Defense.

To tell the truth, it's hard to justify calling ANY opening system a mistake.

Even 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f6 is marginally playable, as long as Black doesn't take the Knight after 3. Nxe5.

the premises here are ridiculous. what beginner cares about opening soundness? so long as it doesnt hang pieces, it is sound at that level.

what people play at the professional level lmao. even lower end masters dont care that much. 

teaching chess to real improving beginners is no easy task. you get told by "coach" to develop your pieces and not waste time in the opening and, then they see 1.e4 c5, a move that doesnt develop a piece and only opens up the queen a big no no.

you tell the not to take out the queen out early , and then you show them the ruy lopez exchange variation, and they are told to play qd4 to get the pawn back violating yet another opening principle.

teaching real beginners the philidor lets them learn the ropes before they can even process exceptions to opening rules. first they need to get their knees scrapped a couple of hundred times. "foster intuition"

I've always wondered which move is better between 5. Nf3 and 5.Nb3 after 4....c5. If anyone has an answer with an explanation, please do give it
 

With no offense, at beginners level one tends to make a lot of pawn moves, and avoid captures. I think that kind of makes 2...d6 a very logic defensive move.

I agree. Nc6 would develop a piece and beginners don't do that.

I think it's because beginners tend to only see the side of the board where the last move was made. They usually have no clue the knight that's on the other side of the board can come out and defend the pawn.

In the end it doesn't matter why beginners do this or that. At the end of the day both players have to find the best moves. Even if black plays some suspicious moves that means nothing if nobody can exploit it.

1300 is about the average rating in the USCF, and is higher than average here. 

That was a really good answer, tysm. The idea of getting a knight to d5 never occurred to me, although I did try to attack d6 (not always to great effect though). Again, thanks a lot!

This I realised is so true! It has happened to me so many times that I lost just cuz I wasn't paying enough attention.