Tree path 4 levels King's Pawn Game › King's Knight Opening › Petrov's Defense › Modern Attack

C43

Petrov's Defense: Modern Attack

Play from here → Click pieces to play, or use ← / → arrows.

Overview

Petrov's Defense: Modern Attack is a variation within the Open Games family, indexed as ECO C43.

The Open Games group covers open games — classical 1.e4 e5 openings where both sides contest the centre directly with pawns.

The line arises from 5 plies — specifically the moves 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4.

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: Modern Attack, Center Variation, Symmetrical Variation.

Together the deeper variations number 9 across the full subtree.

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: C43
Group: Open Games (C)
Plies: 5
Parent: Petrov's Defense
Direct variations: 3
Total in subtree: 9

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

2,947,619 games · White 52.0% / Draw 4.8% / Black 43.1%

Moves	Games	W / D / B
Nxe4	1,295,536
exd4	1,233,666
Nc6	153,324
d6	129,185
d5	94,406
Bb4+	11,121
Bc5	7,094
c6	5,427

Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 01:13:07

Write a description

Markdown supported (headings ###, bold, lists, links). Submissions are reviewed before publishing.

Variations (3)

Show all 9 sub-variations (full subtree)

Overview

Statistics from Lichess

Variations (3)

Related variations at the same level