Philidor defence is quite common among below 1400 rated players. It also seems to be favorite opening choice of Computer 1-Easy & Computer 2-Medium.

The Philidor Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:

1. e4 e5

2. Nf3 d6

Philiodr is a solid & commonly played opening system. Previously I struggled to get any decisive advantage. Recently a studied a book by Indian GM Parimarjan Negi (2650+ rated player) titled 

Grandmaster Repertoire: 1.e4 vs The French, Caro-Kann and Philidor

The book has many good ideas for tackling the Philidor (I did not had the chance to go through French defence & Caro-Kann section yet).

With the help of the ideas I managed to crush an almost 100+ rated player in less than 15 moves.

Though I was helped by blunder commited by my oppoent at move 13. However, one can easily see how black's position was put under severe pressure almost from the move 1.

Dear All,

Here's another game in which I punished my opponent who chose to play Philidor defence against me.

If you evaluate this game against powerful engines like Houdini or Stockfish- black has committed no serious blunder but white is able to incrementally accumulate advantage till late middle game

Central Theme #1: How to exploit pointless move by opponent to sieze the initiative & launch a pwerful attack

Central Theme #2: How to exploit your opponent's vulnerable king

Dear All,

I recently played another game against Philidor. Here's how I managed to dismantle black.

Key Idea #1: Opposite side castling 

Key Idea #2: Forming a battery against black's fianchetto bishop

Key Idea #3: Launch a pawn avalanche towards black's king

nice contribution!

Try for Legal's Mate.

That's a nice checkmate to play, and is possible after the Philidor.

Oh lol, I thought you meant the Philidor Position.

A PERFECT WAY TO DEFEAT IT!