When Black, it seems a nice way of saying right from the start, “Ok! You attack me - I attack you back!”
It doesn’t seem to be so popular lately due to it being considered an opening that often ends up with a draw, although Wikipedia mentions that "Grandmasters Karpov, Yusupov, Smyslov, Marshall, Kramnik, and Pillsbury have frequently played the Petrov as Black."
For my own sake as much as anyone else’s, I plan on going through my books and searching for Petrov’s Defence examples. There are a multitude of examples online, but hey, I like books (although the irony of then publishing them online isn’t lost on me...).
My old copy of David Brine Pritchard’s The Right Way To Play Chess simply states “Black answers the attack on his KP with a counter-attack on White’s KP.” [My copy actually has ‘on White’s QP’ printed, but that doesn’t make sense – White’s QP is quite safe at this point...] “White retains the minimal move advantage.”
Referring to another old book – Reverend E. E. Cunnington’s Chess Openings For Beginners, we find the following two examples of the opening:
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Be7 7. O-O O-O ( 7... Nc6 )
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 exd4 4. e5 Ne4 5. Qxd4 d5 6. exd6 Nxd6 7. Nc3 Nc6
