Tree path 6 levels King's Pawn Game › King's Knight Opening › Petrov's Defense › Petrov's Defense › Petrov's Defense › Paulsen Attack
- Chess Codex
- King's Pawn Game C20
- King's Knight Opening C40
- Petrov's Defense C42
- Petrov's Defense C42
- Petrov's Defense C42
- Paulsen Attack C42 you are here
Petrov's Defense: Paulsen Attack
Overview
Petrov's Defense: Paulsen Attack 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.
It begins with 7 plies and takes 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nc4 to reach the canonical position.
It is a variation of Petrov's Defense, which itself descends from the root opening King's Pawn Game.
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
- 7
- Parent
- Petrov's Defense
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
194,101 games · White 47.4% / Draw 5.6% / Black 47.0%
| Moves | Games | W / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| Nxe4 | 183,043 | |
| Be6 | 2,725 | |
| b5 | 2,338 | |
| Be7 | 2,054 | |
| Nc6 | 1,900 | |
| Qe7 | 716 | |
| d5 | 640 | |
| Bg4 | 345 |
Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 01:39:16
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