Why does Petrov Defence unpopular at low level?

its kinda popular now with everybody trying to play the Stafford gambit..

Isn't that just playing against the bishop opening? That's the same as saying the Sicilian is a bad simply because it can be defused by playing 1. d4.

these days, at intermediate ratings, when someone plays the Russian, 9 times out of 10 they are going to play the Stafford. It's nauseating.

It's excellent - A favorite of Gelfand. But I personally think it's boring. And every time someone played it against me, I ganged up on the horse, and mostly I won, so... I don't want White to ride on my horse...

But maybe I'm wrong, who cares. Boaring.

@pfren - the problem with playing against the Stafford isn't that it's hard to play against. The exact opposite is the case. They always play the same moves, I always play the same refutation, I always win, and it's boring. Maybe I'm weird, but I don't enjoy playing a game where I do the same thing every time, even if I win.

@pfren - I don't know. I feel that people who play the Stafford aren't playing chess, they are playing something they memorize and hope you don't know what to do. It's like a more complicated version of the Jerome Gambit and both lose by force if you know the refutation. I just feel it's my duty to punish Stafford players as quickly and easily as possible, and I don't want to risk letting them win. Besides, I'm not going to bother learning a whole new line of theory for an opening I face maybe once every 25-40 games. I suppose you can say it's my fault, and you're not wrong.

That's funny. I'd Never take the horse - I don't get them, you know what's my favorite thing in all of chess? "letting them hang themselves" [with their akward development, usually by retreating]

It may look dumb - to return the horsy, but now Black's queen is stuck, his horse sits on his c-pawn... as opposed to you - who can play c3, d4 - have your queen fly - fun.

or you may play d4 instead, this horse retreat is just an example - maybe in here it's terrible..

Another example:

The annoying Alekhine Defense - yes, normally you push the pawn, but why not pulling the horsy - taking away the central light sqrs from his horse? now, if White could play e5... the Black horse is back to the stable in g8. - again, just an example, I don't know if that's actually good in here.

in this case 2 Nc3 is bad because Black equalizes immediately with 2... d5 or 2... e5 which transposes to a Vienna. I know the Horse on d5 is annoying but it will be kicked eventually with c4 and 2 e5 is the only move to consider against the Alekhine if you don't play the Vienna