Tree path 4 levels King's Pawn Game › King's Knight Opening › Petrov's Defense › Petrov's Defense
- Chess Codex
- King's Pawn Game C20
- King's Knight Opening C40
- Petrov's Defense C42
- Petrov's Defense C42 you are here
Petrov's Defense
Overview
Petrov's Defense is a variation within the Open Games family, indexed as ECO C42.
The Open Games group covers open games — classical 1.e4 e5 openings where both sides contest the centre directly with pawns.
Play reaches this position via 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5, after 5 plies of opening development.
It is a variation of Petrov's Defense, which itself descends from the root opening King's Pawn Game.
It branches into 3 notable variations — Petrov's Defense, Damiano Variation, Stafford Gambit.
Below the direct variations, the full subtree contains 33 documented sub-variations.
Step through the moves on the interactive board below, review the live Lichess statistics, or play this position against Stockfish at one of six difficulty levels.
- ECO code
- C42
- Group
- Open Games (C)
- Plies
- 5
- Parent
- Petrov's Defense
- Direct variations
- 3
- Total in subtree
- 33
This overview is generated automatically from the opening's metadata. Know this line well? Write a description — submissions are reviewed before publishing.
Statistics from Lichess
12,710,140 games · White 49.5% / Draw 5.1% / Black 45.4%
| Moves | Games | W / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| d6 | 5,048,313 | |
| Nc6 | 4,605,589 | |
| Qe7 | 1,288,990 | |
| Nxe4 | 1,079,692 | |
| Bc5 | 333,514 | |
| d5 | 183,638 | |
| Bd6 | 71,569 | |
| c6 | 45,560 |
Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 01:12:58
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Variations (3)
Show all 33 sub-variations (full subtree)
- C42 Petrov's Defense 6-ply
- C42 Damiano Variation 6-ply
- C42 Stafford Gambit 6-ply
- C42 Petrov's Defense 7-ply
- C42 Cochrane Gambit 7-ply
- C42 Kholmov Gambit 8-ply
- C42 Karklins-Martinovsky Variation 7-ply
- C42 Paulsen Attack 7-ply
- C42 Petrov's Defense: Stafford Gambit 8-ply
- C42 Petrov's Defense 8-ply
- C42 Bishop Check Line 9-ply
- C42 Center Variation 9-ply
- C42 Classical Attack 9-ply
- C42 Cozio Attack 9-ply
- C42 French Attack 9-ply
- C42 Kaufmann Attack 9-ply
- C42 Millennium Attack 9-ply
- C42 Nimzowitsch Attack 9-ply
- C42 Chigorin Variation 15-ply
- C42 Closed Variation 10-ply
- C42 Marshall Variation 12-ply
- C42 Mason Variation 14-ply
- C42 Mason-Showalter Variation 12-ply
- C42 Petrov's Defense: Classical Attack, Berger Variation 19-ply
- C42 Petrov's Defense: Classical Attack, Jaenisch Variation 15-ply
- C42 Petrov's Defense: Classical Attack, Krause Variation 19-ply
- C42 Petrov's Defense: Classical Attack, Maróczy Variation 20-ply
- C42 Petrov's Defense: Classical Attack, Staunton Variation 16-ply
- C42 Petrov's Defense: Classical Attack, Tarrasch Variation 16-ply
- C42 Petrov's Defense: Classical Attack, Chigorin Variation, Browne Attack 17-ply
- C42 Petrov's Defense: Classical Attack, Chigorin Variation, Main Line 17-ply
- C42 Petrov's Defense: Classical Attack, Marshall Trap 20-ply
- C42 Petrov's Defense: Classical Attack, Marshall Variation, Chinese Gambit 18-ply