Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...e5/2. Nf3

Open Game
a b c d e f g h 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 a b c d e f g h
Position in Forsyth-Edwards Notation (FEN) rnbqkbnr/pppp1ppp/8/4p3/4P3/5N2/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKB1R b
Moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3
Responses: 2...Nc6 - Open Game 2...Nf6 - Petroff Defence 2...d6 - Philidor's Defence 2...f5 - Latvian Gambit 2...d5 - Elephant Gambit

2. Nf3 - Open Game

Black's valuable center pawn is threatened with capture, but White's pawn remains safe.

The question for Black at this point is whether to challenge the White pawn on e4 or support the Black one on e5.

Supporting the Black pawn

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

2...Nc6   (King's Knight, main line)

2...Nc6 is the natural move, combining defence of the pawn with control of the d4 square and avoiding committing another pawn for now.

2. Nf3 is 10 times more popular than everything else combined, and in turn the reply 2...Nc6 is about 5 times more popular than everything else combined.

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

2...d6   (Philidor)

2...d6, Philidor's Defence, is the other safe option to defend the pawn.

It restricts the f8 bishop to the e7 square, and grants White an advantage in territory, but it builds a fortress that cannot be easily battered down. This is generally considered an inferior way to defend the e5 pawn because white can easily push for advantage here, and white gets a 58% score here, with 41% wins opposed to black's 25%. This is especially the case if black makes a c7-c5 push to kick a potential knight on d4, greatly weakening the d6 pawn.

An alternative (older) way to play this is to follow up with 3...f5, but more recent analyses have proven this line to be completely losing for black

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

2...f6?   (Damiano)

Note that 2...f6? is a bad move.

It has a name, Damiano's Defence, but poor Damiano never wanted his name associated with it because it doesn't work – White captures the pawn anyway, and capturing the knight back with the pawn just loses the game.

Challenging the White pawn

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

2...Nf6   (Petrov)

2...Nf6 is the Petrov Defence.

Black wants the same things that White wants, but once again White will be back in a symmetrical position with the advantage of moving first. This opening is known to be notoriously drawish due to the resultant symmetric positions.

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

2...f5   (Latvian Gambit)

2...f5 is the Latvian Gambit.

This iconic counter-thrust divides opinion like very few other openings.

Has Black lured White into a minefield of tricks and traps leading to an inevitable violent death?

Or has Black given away a pawn for nothing?

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

2...d5   (Elephant Gambit)

2...d5 is the Elephant Gambit.

It's along the same lines as the Latvian, but less complex – White needs to do less memorising to reach a good position.

Statistics

Estimated next move popularity

Nc6 83.5%, Nf6 11%, d6 4%, f5 0.5%, other less than 0.5%.

Theory table

For explanation of theory tables, see theory table and for notation, see algebraic notation.

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3

	2	3	4	5
Ruy Lopez	... Nc6	Bb5 a6	Ba4 Nf6	O-O Be7	=
Petrov's Defence	... Nf6	Nxe5 d6	Nf3 Nxe4	d4 d5	=
Philidor Defence	... d6	d4 exd4	Nxd4 Nf6	Nc3 Be7	+=
Latvian Gambit	... f5	Nxe5 Qf6	d4 d6	Nc4 fxe4	+/-
Elephant Gambit	... d5	exd5 Bd6	d4 e4	Ne5 Nf6	+=
Câmara Defence	... Qe7	Bc4 d6	O-O g6	d4 Bg7	+=
Greco Defence	... Qf6	Bc4 Qg6	Nc3		+/-
Damiano Defence	... f6	Nxe5 Qe7	Nf3 Qxe4	Be2	+/-

References

• Nunn's Chess Openings. 1999. John Nunn (Editor), Graham Burgess, John Emms, Joe Gallagher. ISBN 1-8574-4221-0.

• Kasparov, Garry, & Keene, Raymond 1989 Batsford chess openings 2. ISBN 0-8050-3409-9.