Petrov's Defense: Classical Attack, Chigorin Variation, Browne Attack

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. O-O Be7 8. c4 Nb4 9. cxd5

The Petrov's Defense: Classical Attack, Chigorin Variation, Browne Attack is a chess opening classified as ECO C42, reached after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. O-O Be7 8. c4 Nb4 9. cxd5. It is a line of the Petrov's Defense. Black is to move.

In 12.6 million rated Lichess games (blitz and slower), this position was reached 17 times by this move order. White won 47%, 18% were drawn and Black won 35%. The most popular continuation is 9… Nxd3 (100% of games).

Engine evaluation: 0.00 (Stockfish, depth 41; best line 9… Nxd3 10. Qxd3 Qxd5 11. Re1 Bf5 12. g4)

ECO: C42
Moves: 17 plies
FEN: r1bqk2r/ppp1bppp/8/3P4/1n1Pn3/3B1N2/PP3PPP/RNBQ1RK1 b kq - 0 9
PGN: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. O-O Be7 8. c4 Nb4 9. cxd5

Analyse with Stockfish · Board image (SVG) · Open on Lichess

Results by rating

Average rating	Games	White / draw / Black
1500-1999	1	100%
2000+	16	50%19%31%
All	17	47%18%35%

Most played moves

Move	Games	White / draw / Black
9… Nxd3	17 (100%)	47%18%35%

Master games

56 over-the-board games are classified under this line (White 32%, draw 47%, Black 21%). The strongest:

GM Li Chao2 (2652) – GM Xiangyu Xu (2623) 1/2-1/2 · TCh-CHN DivA Finals 2023 · 2023-12-03
GM Martyn Kravtsiv (2653) – GM Ottomar Ladva (2530) 1/2-1/2 · 18th ch-EUR Indiv 2017 · 2017-06-01
GM Jonny Hector (2478) – GM Ferdinand Hellers (2595) 0-1 · Turning Torso Chess 2019 · 2019-11-30
GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. (2475) – GM Adam Tukhaev (2570) 1/2-1/2 · 10th Chennai Open 2018 · 2018-01-22
GM Alexander Kovchan (2575) – GM Oleksandr Sulypa (2463) 1/2-1/2 · TCh-UKR 2021 · 2021-05-10

Search all games of the Petrov's Defense: Classical Attack, Chigorin Variation, Browne Attack and its sub-variations

Highest-rated Lichess games

vga79 (2326) – Ngandung (2327) 1-0 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
Vadim_Valerievich (2336) – lalmi (2223) 1/2-1/2 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s
Vadim_Valerievich (2351) – lalmi (2207) 0-1 · 2026-09-01 · 180 + 0s

Comes from

Petrov's Defense: Classical Attack, Jaenisch Variation 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Nc6 7. O-O Be7 8. c4

More Petrov's Defense lines (all)

Opening names and moves from the Lichess openings dataset; statistics from the Lichess open database, 2026-09 (CC0), sample of 12.6 million games, bots excluded; evaluations from Lichess cloud analysis (all CC0). Master games from The Week in Chess #920–#1664 by Mark Crowther, used with permission.