1. e4 e5 2. Nf3
The Italian Game is a chess opening for White that begins 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4, developing the bishop to its most natural attacking square and aiming it straight at f7, the weakest point in Black’s camp. It is the classical alternative to the Ruy Lopez (3. Bb5): instead of pressuring the c6-knight, White points everything at Black’s king from move three. This repertoire plays the Italian the old way — an early c3 and d4 to build a full pawn center and open the position while Black is still developing.
The Italian position appears after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4. Black’s two main replies define the opening’s branches: 3... Bc5 is the Giuoco Piano, mirroring White’s development, and 3... Nf6 is the Two Knights Defense, counterattacking e4 immediately. Against the Giuoco Piano this course plays 4. c3 followed by 5. d4, striking at the center before Black finishes developing; against the Two Knights it strikes with an immediate 4. d4. If Black avoids the Italian entirely with 2... d6 (the Philidor Defense), White opens the center the same way with 3. d4. One idea runs through every branch: develop fast, hit the center, and open lines toward f7 and the Black king.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Nc3
The backbone of this repertoire. White builds the full pawn center with c3 and d4, and when Black checks on b4, White offers the e4-pawn with 7. Nc3 rather than blocking passively. After 7... Nxe4 8. O-O White has a huge lead in development and open lines against the uncastled king — every Black move from here has to be accurate, and the course drills exactly what happens when it is not.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Nc3 Nxe4 8. O-O Bxc3 9. d5
The famous pawn thrust that turns the Greco Gambit into a true attack: instead of recapturing on c3, White pushes 9. d5, hitting the c6-knight and opening the e-file against Black’s king. After 9... Bf6 10. Re1 Ne7 11. Rxe4 White regains the piece with a raging initiative — Bg5, Nxg5 and a check on b5 follow, and several course lines end in direct mating attacks. Black can survive with precise defense, which is exactly why White trains these positions and most opponents have not.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Nc3 Nxe4 8. O-O Nxc3 9. bxc3 Bxc3 10. Ba3
Black takes everything on c3 — two pawns up, but fatally behind in development. 10. Ba3 stops Black from ever castling: if the bishop grabs the rook with 10... Bxa1, then 11. Re1+ forces 11... Ne7, and White wins the queen back with interest after Bxe7 and Rxe7+. The whole line is a lesson in why development beats material in open positions, and it is one of the most satisfying punishments in the course.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d4 exd4 5. O-O Nxe4 6. Re1 d5 7. Bxd5 Qxd5 8. Nc3
Against 3... Nf6 the course strikes immediately in the center rather than entering the heavily analyzed 4. Ng5 jungles. If Black grabs the e4-pawn, 6. Re1 pins the knight to the king, and after 6... d5 White plays the key resource 7. Bxd5: the queen must recapture, and 8. Nc3 forks queen and pinned knight. White wins the piece back with the better structure and an enduring initiative against Black’s loose queenside.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Be7 6. Bf4 O-O 7. Qd2
When Black ducks the Italian with the passive 2... d6, White opens the center at once. After the exchange on d4 White develops smoothly with Nc3, Bf4 and Qd2, castles long, and attacks the kingside while Black sits cramped behind the d6-pawn. The course covers Black’s main defensive setups so the Philidor never costs you your opening advantage.
Facing this Italian setup with Black, the first rule is: do not be greedy. The c3–d4 gambit lines are built to punish players who grab pawns and keep grabbing — taking on c3 twice and then snapping the a1-rook walks straight into Re1+ and a lost queen. The respectable defense starts with 3... Bc5 and the disciplined sequence 5... exd4 6. cxd4 Bb4+ 7. Nc3 Nxe4: theory holds that Black is fine here, but only with precision. Against the Møller Attack (8... Bxc3 9. d5), the key move is 9... Bf6, keeping the bishop on the long diagonal and preparing ...Ne7 — and Black must be ready to return the extra piece at the right moment to blunt the attack. Two Knights players (3... Nf6) should know that after 4. d4 exd4 5. O-O Nxe4 6. Re1 d5 7. Bxd5 White forks the queen and knight with 8. Nc3, so the pawn grab is not free; choosing where the queen retreats decides whether Black equalizes or suffers. If concrete defense is not your style, sidestep the sharpest lines entirely: a sturdy ...d6 setup or an early ...Be7 keeps the position closed and denies White the open e-file the whole system feeds on. Whatever you pick, castle quickly — every disaster Black suffers in this opening happens with the king still on e8.
Develop bishop to c4 and knight to f3, then break the center open with c3 and d4 before Black is ready. Castle short fast — the rook belongs on e1, where the open e-file points at Black’s king. In the gambit lines, value time over material: pieces out, lines open, and concrete threats every move. When Black defends passively, push d5 or e5 to cramp the position and convert the space advantage.
Hold the center calmly and finish developing before taking anything hot. Meet c3 and d4 with the principled ...exd4 and ...Bb4+ sequence, contest e4, and be willing to give material back to kill the initiative. Castle at the first opportunity — the e-file is where Black loses these games. Solid, slightly worse, and safe beats two extra pawns and a king in the center.
The Italian Game is one of the oldest recorded chess openings, analyzed in Italian chess literature centuries ago. The 17th-century Italian master Gioachino Greco worked out many of the attacking ideas that still define the sharp main lines — including the gambit play with c3 and d4 that this course teaches. The quiet branch, the Giuoco Pianissimo with d3, fell in and out of fashion over the centuries before becoming a staple of modern elite play, where top grandmasters use it as a primary alternative to the Ruy Lopez. The classical center attack trained here is the older, more romantic interpretation: White opens the game immediately and asks Black to defend, the same way the opening was played when it earned its name.
Let's play the italian game!
Let's learn the Italian game! This is by far the most played opening at the non-professional level. It's traditional, it's old school, it's chess the way your grandpa taught you. Let's just get into it with pawn to e4.
When Black responds pawn to e5, now we can go knight to f3, attacking Black's pawn. You've probably done this a million times before.
Most of the time black puts their knight out to defend their pawn - which brings us to the italian game. We'll have our opponent saying mama mia in no time. First, let's bring our bishop to c4. This targets the f7 pawn: the weakest pawn in black's position.
Here, the key move that makes this game an italian one is pawn to c3. We're setting up pawn to d4 in the future to attack the bishop Black just put out.
Now we continue our plan: pawn to d4 to take the center and attack this bishop. This leads to some very fun, aggressive, forcing lines.
Take back with pawn to d4. We take back with the pawn to keep the bishop under attack.
We have to protect our king. Let's do it with knight to c3, developing a piece.
We just lost a pawn, and now we have two attackers on our knight. Do you know the crazy part? We actually will ignore all of that entirely and just castle our king to safety.
If black capture with the knight, we recapture with pawn to c3.
Black is hitting our rook, and they're hoping that we move our rook out of the way so they have enough time to castle their king to safety. If Black castles, our entire attack is over before it even got started. That's why in this position, we sacrifice the rook! Bishop to a3 blocking Black's castle.
Black took the bait and lost the game! Rook to e1, checking the king. The king can't move so instead the check must be blocked.
We can grab the knight with bishop to e7. Now do you see just how much trouble Black is in if they take our rook?
Rook takes on e7.
Finally, we end up a knight up after queen to a1.
Wow! That's what black gets for trying to take our rook. Maybe next time they'll learn their lesson.
Ah, Black blocked our bishop so now they can castle again. In this case, lets slide our rook over to c1 and hit the bishop. Now we've gained a tempo: Black must move their bishop before castling.
Now an awesome move: Queen to a4. It both hits the bishop and pins the knight to the king. As you'll see in a second, Black has no way to get out of this.
Black thinks that after castling, their problems are over. But now pawn to d5 hitting the knight. The knight is the only defender of the bishop, and after it moves, we get the bishop for free.
We can't take the bishop yet! Because then black will take our knight and open up our king. Instead, let's first play knight takes knight on e5.
Now we can finally take the bishop. Queen to a5.
Well done! We are up a piece and up in development. Black really has nothing here.
Lets' trade. Bishop to b4.
There's a fork: can you spot it? Queen to e1. Hitting the king and knight
Of course, we take the free knight. Queen captures on b4.
Well done! We are up a piece, our king is castled, and our pieces are more developed.
Retreating was a huge mistake for Black. We are ready to march our pawns forward, driving Black's knights away. Pawn to e5.
The knight jumped forward. We can force him back with pawn to h3.
Now let's switch our focus to Black's other knight. Pawn to d5. This, folks, is what happens when you have pieces in the middle without pawns to defend them: you get harassed.
With black's knights on the edges of the board (gross) we can continue our master plan. Bishop to g5 attacking the queen.
Here, we can sacrifice our bishop on c4 by playing the calculated pawn takes f6. We are threatening pawn takes g7 on the next move, discovering an attack on both black's queen and rook.
Well done! We have absolutely humiliated black's position and we will be winning this game. The computer gives a +4 point advantage here.
Let's be aggressive and dynamic. Pawn to d4 to take the center and open up the position.
This was inaccurate from Black. Lets capture on e5 to regain our pawn and open up the d-file for our queen.
Black is threatening a fork (or a check) on f2. But what's better than a fork or a check threat? A checkmate threat. Queen to d5.
That's fine. King to f1. All part of the plan.
Black stopped the checkmate threat but they forgot about our other key point: we are attacking the undefended knight on e4. Queen takes e4.
Well done! We are simply up a piece.
Yes — it is one of the most recommended openings for improving players. It follows classical principles directly: develop quickly, control the center, castle early, and attack f7. The skills it teaches transfer to every other opening you will ever learn.
Both start 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6, then the bishop chooses its diagonal: 3. Bc4 is the Italian, aiming directly at f7 and Black’s king, while 3. Bb5 is the Ruy Lopez, pressuring the knight that defends e5. The Italian tends toward faster, more direct play; the Ruy Lopez toward long-term positional pressure.
The Giuoco Piano is the branch of the Italian Game where Black answers 3. Bc4 with 3... Bc5. The Italian Game is the umbrella name that also covers Black’s other replies, most importantly the Two Knights Defense with 3... Nf6.
It can be either, depending on White’s fourth and fifth moves. The modern Giuoco Pianissimo with d3 is slow and positional, while the classical lines with c3 and d4 — the approach trained in this course — open the center early and lead to sharp, tactical play.
Black’s two main defenses are 3... Bc5, the Giuoco Piano, and 3... Nf6, the Two Knights Defense. Both are fully respectable; the practical danger is the sharp center-attack lines with c3 and d4, where Black must defend precisely and avoid grabbing material with the king still in the center.
Reading about an opening is step one. The trainer at the top of this page drills all 22 lines against the moves real opponents play — the first lines are free.
Train the Italian Game now