Answers.Body: <p>Possibly it's the evasion of the evasion of the evasion.</p>
  
  <p>GMs evade the Ruy mainlines by playing the Berlin, then they evade the Berlin by playing the Italian and now they might just start to evade the Italian by playing the Petroff. </p>
  
  <p>My hope is that they'll evade the Petroff by playing the King's Gambit. </p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2018-05-28T14:49:33.910Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2018-05-28T14:49:33.910Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: BlindKungFuMaster
Answers.Body: <p>Nowadays theory has become so convoluted at the super-GM level that top players want to avoid the main lines more and more. The petroff is a good option, since it hasn't been analyzed and played by super-GMs to such a huge extent. In addition, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the Petroff (objectively, it may just be <em>slightly</em> worse than 2...Nc6).</p>
  
  <p>By the way, the fact that Caruana played the Petroff 4 times in the Candidates doesn't necessarily signify a resurgence of the opening. He probably just prepared it specifically for that tournament, and the same goes for Nakamura in the US championship.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2018-05-30T16:21:54.163Z
Answers.Text: *"The petroff is a good option, since it hasn't been analyzed and played by super-GMs to such a huge extent."* Really ? Remember Karpov, Kramnik, Leko, Shirov and others killing so many lines of the Petroff by analysis that go well into the endgame...
Answers.UserDisplayName: Evargalo
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2018-05-30T22:49:09.857Z
Answers.Text: @Evargalo Sure, it's been played and analyzed deeply by some super-GMs, but not nearly as much as 2...Nc6 has. Pretty much all openings that have been played occasionally by super-GMs have analysis going into the endgame.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Inertial Ignorance
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2018-06-01T23:57:33.457Z
Answers.Text: @InertialIgnorance: "Pretty much all openings that have been played occasionally by super-GMs have analysis going into the endgame." Do they?
Answers.UserDisplayName: thb
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2018-06-02T00:16:54.913Z
Answers.Text: @thb If multiple super-GMs choose to play an opening on multiple occasions, there's a good chance the opening has some respectable analysis backing it up.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Inertial Ignorance
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2018-05-28T19:19:13.090Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2018-05-28T19:19:13.090Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Inertial Ignorance
Body: <p>In the last few years, the Petroff defense had almost disappeared from the super-grandmaster scene with Top players preferring to play the Berlin. However, in this year itself, the Petroff has seen some sort of a renaissance with Fabiano Caruana in particular playing it 4 times in the Candidates tournament itself. Top players like Nakamura have also played it a few times recently(particularly the US Championship) </p>
  
  <p>My question is, <strong>Why is the Petroff being played more recently?</strong> Has there been any novelty that has been uncovered and everyone's just analyzing it more and more?</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2018-05-28T12:45:15.343Z
Comments.Text: Perhaps people got bored playing the Berlin!?
Comments.UserDisplayName: user1583209
Tags: <opening><petroff-defense>
Title: Why has the Petroff Defence become more popular?
ThreadText: # Why has the Petroff Defence become more popular?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2018-05-28)
  
  In the last few years, the Petroff defense had almost disappeared from the super-grandmaster scene with Top players preferring to play the Berlin. However, in this year itself, the Petroff has seen some sort of a renaissance with Fabiano Caruana in particular playing it 4 times in the Candidates tournament itself. Top players like Nakamura have also played it a few times recently(particularly the US Championship)
  
  My question is, **Why is the Petroff being played more recently?** Has there been any novelty that has been uncovered and everyone's just analyzing it more and more?
  
  **Tags:** opening, petroff-defense
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: Perhaps people got bored playing the Berlin!?  
  
  ---
  
  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2018-05-28. Score: 10
  
  Possibly it's the evasion of the evasion of the evasion.
  
  GMs evade the Ruy mainlines by playing the Berlin, then they evade the Berlin by playing the Italian and now they might just start to evade the Italian by playing the Petroff.
  
  My hope is that they'll evade the Petroff by playing the King's Gambit.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_3 on 2018-05-28. Score: 5
  
  Nowadays theory has become so convoluted at the super-GM level that top players want to avoid the main lines more and more. The petroff is a good option, since it hasn't been analyzed and played by super-GMs to such a huge extent. In addition, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the Petroff (objectively, it may just be *slightly* worse than 2...Nc6).
  
  By the way, the fact that Caruana played the Petroff 4 times in the Candidates doesn't necessarily signify a resurgence of the opening. He probably just prepared it specifically for that tournament, and the same goes for Nakamura in the US championship.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_4**: *"The petroff is a good option, since it hasn't been analyzed and played by super-GMs to such a huge extent."* Really ? Remember Karpov, Kramnik, Leko, Shirov and others killing so many lines of the Petroff by analysis that go well into the endgame...  
  > **username_3**: @username_4 Sure, it's been played and analyzed deeply by some super-GMs, but not nearly as much as 2...Nc6 has. Pretty much all openings that have been played occasionally by super-GMs have analysis going into the endgame.  
  > **username_5**: @username_3: "Pretty much all openings that have been played occasionally by super-GMs have analysis going into the endgame." Do they?  
  > **username_3**: @username_5 If multiple super-GMs choose to play an opening on multiple occasions, there's a good chance the opening has some respectable analysis backing it up.  
  
  ---
  
  