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.

Chess: King Pawn Openings and Queen Pawn Openings

By: Alex Faull

In chess, the first moves of a game will usually revolve around controlling the center of the board. Because of this the two most common first moves in chess are as follows: e2 to e4 (king pawn to the center), and d2 to d4 (queen pawn to the center). Black's usual response is to mirror white's move.

Both opening get control of the center on the first turn, and at first glance seam nearly identical, but actually are very different. Both openings will cause the rest of the game to be very different. Yasser Seirawan lists some of the traits of king and queen pawn games in his book, Winning Chess: Openings. Here are some of them:

King Pawn Openings:

• Sharp play ensues immediately
• The king is more vulnerable
• The game is often shorter

Queen Pawn Openings:

• The fight is delayed
• The king is less vulnerable
• The game is usually longer

(Seirawan, 31)

Position of king pawn opening

Position of queen pawn opening

The main differences between king and queen pawn games stems from two things, one of which being how easy it is for both sides to develop their king-side forces. This might not seem very important, but it actually can affect how early you are able to castle and move your king to a safer position. A king pawn opening is far better at allowing your king-side pieces to be developed, since the king pawn opening allows the king-side bishop to move into play; while a queen pawn opening keeps the bishop trapped in.

The bishop can freely move out with a king pawn opening, meaning that the king can castle as soon as turn 4.

This difference changes the overall pace of the game. Since with a king pawn opening the king-side pieces are developed quicker and the king can be castled sooner, the game will last shorter than a game with a queen pawn opening. This also means that the conflict in a game will be delayed a handful of turns if a game is started with a queen pawn opening.

The second big difference in the two openings stems from the queen. In a queen pawn opening, the pawn has built in defense from the queen. If an enemy piece take the pawn, the queen can avenge it. But in a king pawn opening, the pawns are left alone, there is 0 built in defense for them. 

The queen can easily defend the center pawn, making it easier to play defenseively

In, Winning Chess: Openings, Seirawan points out that in his king pawn opening chapter, "White's e4-pawn was constantly besieged and required protection"(Seirawan, 73). This isn't surprising, since taking the e4-pawn would push white out of the center, so it would be only natural for black to try and capture it. And the same thing happens with queen pawn openings, except it is much harder to take the queen pawn.

This built in protection causes the difference of sharp vs. delayed play. In a king pawn opening, one clever or aggressive move can allow a player to take their opponents center pawn, or one stupid move can cause someone to lose their center pawn. However, with a queen pawn opening a clever move will likely not be enough, since the queen will make it that much harder to take the center pawn.

When I decided to test out both openings, I went up against a chess AI. I am admittedly horrible at chess, so I got crushed easily every time. I tended to have more success using an aggressive style of play to be better with the king pawn opening, trying to use the AI having a weaker defense over the center than with a typical queen pawn opening. But I found that I much preferred the queen pawn opening, since it is much more forgiving of my frequent mistakes.

Also, I prefer the slower, and more patient strategy promoted by a queen pawn opening, trying to use the defensive advantage of the queen pawn opening. Either opening seems strong, however the first move isn't everything. Once your pawn in center, what's next? In order to figure this out, I plan to ask myself the question: how does one defend their center pawn, and attack the enemy center pawn?

Work Cited:

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

Chess: Don't Use Queen Raid

By: Alex Faull

How you open a game in chess can be very critical. If you open poorly you'll likely end up playing from behind for the rest of the game, but if you open ahead, then you could dominate your opponent and end the game being able to say checkmate. Now, me and many other bad chess players (yes, I am admitting that I am bad) become focused on the queen, which isn't to surprising since the queen is so powerful. Because of this focus people tend to use an opening strategy that Yasser Seirwan in the book Winning Chess - Openings calls Queen Raid. Seirwan describes the logical behind Queen Raid, "My Queen was a natural-born bully! All that was necessary was to introduce it into the game as early as possible"(Yasser, 8). The opening strategy is simple: get your queen into play as fast as possible, and use the queen to bully your opponent's weaker pieces. And it actually worked for him, but only when was newer to the game and playing against inexperienced players.

6th turn of one of Seirwan's early games (found on page 17).

The reason this worked for Seirwan at one point is simply because his opponents didn't understand how to counter it. Because of this he achieved many fast victories, being able to win the game without moving most of his pieces. But there is the problem: he never uses most of his pieces early, so they get simply stay trapped where they were from the start. So, when Seirwan began to use Queen's Raid against better opponents, they would use their own pieces to push bully his queen by constantly placing it under the threat of capture. So while Yasser spent the opening trying to try and keep his queen alive, his opponents would simply gain control of the board by having more pieces in play. The image to the right is from one Seirwan's games where the Queen Raid failed him (Seirwan is white, his opponent is black). While Seirwan has opponent in check, he is actually at the disadvantage. Though the aggressive Queen Raid opening put the black king in some danger, black already has both knights in play, two pieces in the center of the map, a threat against the white pawn in the center (black knight on f6), and can easily move out other pieces. White has a pawn in the center, the queen under threat, a check, and pieces trapped behind a wall of unmoved pawns. Check on turn 6 is very early, but a single check isn't worth being put behind this early.

The Queen Raid has the chance to secure an early win, but you can't rely on it. So, if it's unwise to go for an early win, what is wise? What do I want to accomplish with an early opening? In Yasser's words, you want to "control the center"(Seirwan, 26). This is the underlying principle of a good opening. The reason is simple, a piece in the center has more power since it can impact more vital spaces, allowing you to better control the map. For this reason, the following is one of the most common first moves of a chess game:

 White moves a pawn forward to e4, placing a piece in the center (outlined in red), making it a critical piece on the board

Pawn to e4, an incredibly common move.

Black responds to white by mirroring white and moving a pawn to e5, allowing black to also have a foothold in the center.

Pawn to e5, another incredibly common move.

The next few turns generally involve both side threatening the pawns in the middle, protecting them, and moving other pieces into the center if given the opportunity. Though this is very common and simple, what ensues after is where the incredibly complicated parts come in, but I'm still early in the book, so I won't even act like I know what I'm doing.

I decided to try a both the Queen Raid opening and an opening based on controlling the center against a chess AI. I was crushed, every game (don't judge me, those AI's are terrifying). While I was getting crushed I did notice something: Seirwan was right about the two strategies. I tended to last much longer when I focused on the center and not my queen, being able to have some influence over the board, while when my queen was the focus I could do basically nothing but run from the enemy. So, now that we have an idea of what openings should do, next time I will begin to answer the question: How does one control the center with an opening?