Modernized Philidor Defense

Sergio Trigo Urquijo was born in the Basque Country (Spain) in 1989. He learned to play chess at age of six. As a junior he won local many championships from u-12 to u-18. He performed successfully as a player and captain of the Sestao Chess Club winning the national team Championship in 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2018, including 9 times Basque Team Champion. He won the silver medal in the Portugal Club Cup in 2015 and has played in the European Club Cup in 2014. He is known being a second of several grandmasters during many important evens.

Those who favor positional play andwho have good endgame skills will want to take a look at The ModernizedPhilidor Defense bySpanish FIDE Master Sergio Trigo Urquijo. The move order route to the mainspositions of the Philidor is via 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 as the older 1.e4 e52.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Nf6 is strongly met by 4.dxe5 Nxe4 5.Qd5 Nc5 6.Bg5 and Black hasno way to equalize. The modern move-order does allow White to force aqueen-less middle game where Black has lost the right to castle via 1.e4 d62.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.dxe5 dxe5 5.Qxd8+ Kxd8. After the further 6.Bc4 Be6 7.Bxe6fxe6 White has also inflict doubled isolated e-pawns on the second player, andyet practice has shown these positions to be quite playable for Black. His kingis closer to the center for the endgame and his e-pawns control many squares. The author of TheModernized Philidor Defense is notwell-known but has done an excellent job of covering not only the main lines ofthe Philidor but the sidelines leading up to it.Your reviewer was curious about the sometimes-madeclaim that White has no forced draw in the Philidor. This is pretty much true,but to the author’s credit he does point out the following exception:As played in Z. Ma– Motylev, China 2013, and a half dozen other games. After 21.Ba7 or 21.Re1White can pretty much complete the job of emptying the board. Of course, suchpossibilities are found in pretty much all openings and have no effect on thetheoretical well-being of the Philidor.        IM John Donaldson, US Chess, 09.2021.