Chess: Slav Defense

By: Alex Faull

Queen's Gambit, common
and complicated.

The queen-pawn opening is one of the most common openings in chess, and has many kinds of strategies that stem from it. One of the most common strategies for white is the Queen's Gambit, which can be seen in the image to the right. Now. while Black might be tempted to capture White's c4-pawn, it is much better to hold the center and defend the d5-pawn. One of the many defenses of the d5-pawn is known as the Slav Defense.

Slav Defense: Black responds
to the Queen's Gambit by
using the c-pawn to defend.

The Slav Defense (image on the left) comes from a very simple move: moving the c7-pawn to c6. A solid defense, since protects the d5-pawn. After this move is made, White has two options: trade pawns by capturing the d5-pawn with the c4-pawn, or defending his own pawns. There isn't any huge downsides to trading pawns, but by trading pawns Black is given the opportunity to move the b8 knight to c6, threatening to take White's d4-pawn.

For defending, Yasser Seirawan shows a few options White in his book. Winning Chess: Openings. According to Seirawan, "The preferred way to meet the Slav Defense is to protect the c4 and d4-pawns." The method of defending both pieces presented by Seirawan is effective as well as simple. It's a single move in fact. By moving the e2-pawn to e3, White defends both pieces. The e3-pawn is defending the d4-pawn, while the f1-bishop defends the c4-pawn. With one move White has secured both pawns and his foothold in the center, making it incredibly difficult for black to push White out of the center, especially since Black's b8-knight can't move to its preferred c6 spot.

Response to Slav Defense suggested by Seirawan. The e3-pawn defends the d4-pawn, and the f1-bishop defends the c4-pawn. This holds the center position, and allows the c4-pawn to safely threaten the d5-pawn.

I tried Seirawan's way of dealing with the Slav Defense against a chess AI, and while I still lost, I liked the strategy quite a bit, since my defense was only broken because of a handful of dumb mistakes. If I had played better, I could've held the center of the board for much longer.

There are many responses to the Slav Defense, either revolved around weakening Black's hold the center through trades, or strengthening White's own hold on the center. Your choice of response is determined by how you answer the following question: Is is better to fortify your own center pieces, or remove your opponents center pieces?

Work Cited:

Seirawan, Yasser. Winning Chess Openings. Gloucester Publishers Ltd, 2003.

Chess: The Petroff Defense

By: Alex Faull

In chess, white always moves first, which causes black to usually take a more defensive approach to the game. Because of this, black will spend its first few moves defending its center pawn (see previous posts for information on center pawns and their importance). However, sometimes one might choose to attack in order to defend, and choose to use The Petroff Defense.

The defining move of The
Petroff Defense, Nf6.

Very typical and solid opening
position for white.

To the left is pretty average early king-pawn opening position. White has moved a knight to f3, threatening take Black's pawn and also defending the d4 square. To the left, we have one of the possible responses to white, The Petroff Defense. Yasser Seirawan sums up the logic behind this defense quite well in his book, Winning Chess: Openings. He says, "Instead of busying himself with the defense of his e5-pawn, Black counters with an attack of his own against White's e4-pawn"(Seirawan, 40).


While defending the e5-pawn is a solid option, threatening White's e4-pawn also is solid. Black is basically giving up his own center pawn so he can attack his opponents center pawn when he uses The Petroff Defense. Because of this, both pawns, as well as a few other pieces tend to get traded when this defense is used. What pieces get traded is mostly impacted by White's first move after black first threatens the e4-pawn. According to Seirawan, White's best to options are capturing Black's center pawn with the knight at f3, or moving the pawn at d2 to d4, putting another piece into position to attack Black's e5-pawn.

An important thing I learned about The Petroff Defense when using it against a chess AI was that it only works effectively on king pawn openings. There isn't a queen and king Petroff Defense, just the king Petroff Defense. This is mostly because in a queen pawn opening, the pawns are defended by the queens, so trying to be aggressive and attack White's pawn doesn't work as well, since it comes with that defense.

The Petroff Defense is a very solid defense, but it usually will cause pieces to be lost on both sides. So the question you need to ask yourself when using this defense is as follows: is it worth sacrificing your own pieces in order to take opposing pieces?

Work Cited:

Seirawan, Yasser. Winning Chess Openings. Gloucester Publishers Ltd, 2003.