Morphy Defense, Classical Defense Deferred

The Classical Defense Deferred transfers the idea of 3...Bc5, the Classical or Cordel Defense, to the Morphy Defense. After 3...a6 4. Ba4, Black puts the king's bishop on c5, where it develops actively and bears down on f7. The difference from the immediate 3...Bc5 is that the moves ...a6 and Ba4 have been included. Black therefore keeps the option of ...b5 to break the pressure on c6. As in the Cordel, White's main positional answer is to gain time against the bishop with c3 and d4.

White has three common replies. The most frequent is 5. O-O, played in close to half of all games. Next comes 5. c3, which prepares d4 at once and gives White slightly better results. The quieter 5. d3 is much rarer. If Black then develops the king's knight, the game can transpose into the Møller Variation. Engines give White a slight edge. In online play the results are fairly close, and draws are uncommon.