An opening course for Black (ECO C41)
2...d6 holds e5 with a pawn rather than a piece, and the price is the bishop on f8 and a share of the centre. The Philidor is solid but passive, and it asks for less memory work than most answers to 1.e4. There is a catch, and it is a move order. The comfortable version of this opening is the Hanham setup, with knights on d7 and f6, a bishop on e7 and a pawn on c6, and Black cannot reach it by force after 2...d6. So this course teaches the line Black can always get, 3...exd4 followed by ...Nf6 and ...Be7, and then the 1...d6 move order that does reach the Hanham, along with the queen trade White gets in return.
This course is part of your daily work.
White's pawn on e4 stands a rank further up the board than your pawn on d6, and that space is the whole of White's advantage here. Every piece that comes off makes the smaller half easier to live in, which is why the rook goes to e8 and the bishop drops back to f8 rather than sitting in the way. Black consents to being cramped; White's side of the bargain is that pressing too hard has a cost.
The pawn on c6 takes d5 away from White's knight and leaves the position without a new weakness in it. Cramped, with room to manoeuvre, is the trade you want. The impatient move is ...c5, which frees the game at once and hands White the d5-square and a backward pawn on d6 to work against, so play it only when you can see what you get for them.
The setup Black wants is ...Nbd7, ...Be7 and ...c6 with the pawn still on e5. After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 White can refuse it: 3.d4 Nd7 walks into 4.Bc4, and 3.d4 Nf6 walks into 4.dxe5. Starting with 1...d6 and following up ...Nf6 and ...e5 does reach the setup, and hands White an early queen trade in exchange. Both roads are in this course and neither is free.
From d7 the knight heads for c5, where it hits e4, and from there it can go on to e6 and then d4 or f4. That route is where a cramped position gets its bite, and it is why White spends whole moves on a4 and a5 keeping the square covered. When a line stops making sense, ask which move brings that knight closer to c5.
Learning order, one scoresheet per chapter. The coach serves review one line a day; enter any line directly when you want it now.
3...exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Be7, and then ...0-0 and ...Re8. White has the extra space and four sensible ways to use it. Black has one setup that meets all of them, and a knight heading for c5.
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 reaches the setup Black actually wants, with the pawn staying on e5 and the knights on d7 and f6. It is not free: White gets to trade queens on move five, and there is a bishop sacrifice on f7 to know about. Three lines here, and the first is the one to learn.
3.Bc4, 3.Nc3 and 3.d3 all avoid the immediate d4. None of them is a problem, and two of the three let Black have the setup that 3.d4 was denying.
Club games that started in the Philidor Defence produced these tactics, and you solve every one from Black's side, the seat you actually sit in. Difficulty follows your solving, the same as the puzzle room.
The Philidor Defence is the chess opening that begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6, and it is filed under ECO C41. This course teaches it from Black's side in 11 drills across 3 chapters, with a coach note on the moves that need one, every position checked with Stockfish at depth 20, and every plan credited to the author who wrote it down.
Lines you will drill
Theory credited to
9 branches are deliberately not drilled here, and the course records which and why rather than leaving the gap silent.
Questions
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