If you play it
Solid does not mean easy: these are plan-based positions, and drifting without one gets you squeezed for forty moves. Learn which wing is yours and what the freeing break is.
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Petrov's Defense
Played by BlackBlack answers symmetrically and heads for simplification. Famously solid, famously drawish, and unpleasant to face when you need a win.
From 2,209 games by 594 Chess.com players of every level, September 2026.
Black's score with the Petrov's Defense, by rating
- Under 100050.3% ±3.7
In line with Black's average at this level (48.2%). 715 games by 266 players · 4.2% draws
- 1000–139951.9% ±8.5
In line with Black's average at this level (48.1%). 133 games by 49 players · 6.0% draws
- 1400–179946.4% ±11.8
In line with Black's average at this level (47.4%). 69 games by 21 players · 2.9% draws
- 1800+4 players · not enough games to judge yet
The marker on each bar is Black's average score across all openings at that rating and time control. We only call an opening above or below that average when the gap is far beyond the margin (±) — about 1.7 times it — because we compare dozens of openings at once, and chance alone would make a few of them look special.
The typical mistake
If you face it
Solid defences do not lose quickly — they wait for you to run out of ideas. Points go missing here by drifting: decide which plan you are building towards before the position closes.
Most played lines
- Petrovs Defense41.1% of the sample's games in this opening
- Petrovs Defense Three Knights Game23.8% of the sample's games in this opening
- Petrovs Defense Classical Variation23.0% of the sample's games in this opening
- Petrovs Defense Steinitz Attack5.9% of the sample's games in this opening
- Petrovs Defense Steinitz Attack Symmetrical Variation2.6% of the sample's games in this opening
Each line opens its theory page on Chess.com.
How do you score with the Petrov's Defense?
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How these numbers are made
Every week we draw about 1,008 Chess.com players at random from the public player lists of twelve countries, never one already drawn in the previous weeks, and read their rated games from the last complete month. These numbers add up the latest 2 weekly samples: 2,016 players, 1,382 of whom played in September 2026. A game counts once even if both players are in the sample, and no single player can add more than 10 games to the same opening and time control, so one enthusiast cannot tilt the numbers. Rating bands use the average rating of the two players in that time control, because ratings are not comparable between blitz and rapid. Bands with fewer than 40 games or 10 players are shown but not judged. The score counts a draw as half a point. The ± is a 95% margin, but a gap is only judged beyond 3.3 standard errors: with many openings compared at once, a looser line would flag openings by pure chance. Players on this site are never part of the sample.