Petroff or Berlin?

In 2019, after the European Individial Championship in Skopje, I spent a wonderful afternoon with Boris Gelfand. We had a walk in the park and talked all things chess. Among these, we touched upon the subject of the Petroff Defence.

Gelfand is a life-long Najdorf player, having played it since his beginnings and before 2008 the only other Sicilian he u…