Petroff Defense (3), Silman's open diagonals

Today’s blog entry is from is from an online, turned-based game. White makes a mistake with the d4 advance, after which a pawn trades opens a diagonal to the White King. Shortly after, another diagonal gets open and White is in deep trouble.

The variations and move symbols are Houdini’s (1.5 w32), diagnosed with ‘Scid vs PC’ at 10 seconds per ply. The opening book reference is Stockfish. The verbal comments are my thoughts during the game and my interpretations of the analysis provided by Houdini. The score chart is at the bottom of this entry.

Jeremy Silman emphasizes the advantage of open diagonals. In this game, they were the deciding factor.