Chess The Copy Cat Defense

So far Black has been copying everything White does. 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 (Petrov's defense) 3. Nxe5 Nxe4 4. Qe2 Qe7, but now it White plays Qxe4 Black's copycat days are over. If White plays Qxe4 and Black tries to copycat and play Qxe5 then the white queen will capture the queen on e5 and it's pretty much game over for Black. So much for copying eveything your opponent does as a strategy.

But there is a serious chess opening called the Petrov's defense that does start out 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6. It is a pretty dynamic opening, full of tactics, rather difficult to play and learn and pretty exacting in terms of requiring move accuracy. So if you do decide to play the Petrov, you will need to study the potential traps and pitfalls both as Black and as White.

Let's go back to the beginning, to move three, where White first played Nxe5 in the "copycat." White can play Nc3, which can lead to the four knights defense if Black then plays Nc6, normally a pretty dull choice. But then again, White can liven things up a bit if he chooses to play the Halloween Gambit. For a look at how crazy things can get when you play that see the video below.

White can play Bc4, which leaves open quite a few possibilities and can lead to sacrifices including the Boden-Kiersitzky gambit, and lots and lots of tactical combinations. White will be able to get castled quickly as he has really wasted no time in development, and it is not necessarily the best choice for either side to capture that pawn. But certainly Nxe5 is an option, and is called the Classical Variation. The next choice for Black however, would not be to simply recapture the pawn on e4, as that is the road we went down in the Copycat. Then there is something called the Steinitz variation, which is 3. d4. This move makes a claim for the center, and all four of the choices mentioned above are reasonable moves, but you would want to understand the implications of each before you try to play them in a serious tournament game. Other odd unorthodox choices not mentioned here probably have animal names.

 You can capture the pawn, but you have to watch out for the discovered check as it can be lethal. If you look at the position above, you don't want to be, as Black, in a position like this. Because White can play Nc6 and Black will lose his queen no matter what he does. take a minute and make sure you understand why this is. So you can play the classical variation as White, and as Black, you don't have to lose the pawn, but you just have to make sure that you don't allow for this discovered check. You can, for example, chase the white knight away with pawn to d6 first, before you capture the pawn on e4. At least then you can block with the queen so you don't get discovered checked. Because then you can simply capture the queen on e2 with check and things are at least materially even. White won't be able to castle but with queens off the board that might not matter as much.