The Philidor Opening

As I alluded to in my earlier post, (see below) the Philidor's one redeeming quality (perhaps its only!) is that white is limited to only a handful of lines. When examining opening moves (especially at a macro level), I have always found it useful to examine not only what the "Pros" (i.e., grandmasters) play, but also what every-day, normal folks play. They usually match up, but often some key disparities emerge. For example, the chart (see left) shows the common responses to the Philidor (1. e4 e5. 2. Nf3 d6.). 3. d5 is the dominant choice at the "pro level" and it's also the dominant move at "the non-pro level." However, you can see at the non-professional level, this dominance is no where near as strong.