How to Play and Counter - The Italian Game

     Welcome back to another blog! Today I'm going to cover the Italian Game, as it's one of the oldest and most popular chess openings. The Italian Game starts like this: 

It's actually similar to the Ruy Lopez opening, just instead of moving your bishop to c4 you move it to b5. You might ask, so then why is it so different compared to the Ruy Lopez if it's basically the same? First, it's actually quite different (despite what I just said). And secondly, It's not as aggressive as the Ruy Lopez opening. Here's an example of both openings and just how aggressive the Ruy Lopez is compared to the Italian. 

Too many "oh no, my queen" moments but as you could tell, the Ruy Lopez was a fast-paced game with a bunch of trades early on. The Italian was a bit "calmer" and "slow paced" with more material in the middlegame with less trades in the opening. 

     The Italian Game is about getting your light squared bishop - or as some call it "The Italian Bishop" - developed into the middle of the board, controlling as many spaces as possible. It's also one of the oldest recorded openings, it was developed by players such as Polerio and Damiano in the 16th century. And then later by Greco in 1620 who gave it it's main line, it's even been analysed for more than 300 years! The two most common variations of this opening include the Two Knights Defense and the Gluoco Piano, let's take a look at both! The Two Knights Defense:

     Black has an attack on white's e pawn and two knights developed, but white has a knight and a bishop developed. In my opinion black is being more aggressive in this position, by putting pressure onto white's e pawn - forcing white to defend. But it's also vice versa, white has a very good position with their bishop, which controls a bunch of diagonal squares. So in conclusion, this position is pretty much equal for both sides. 

     And in this position, it's literally equal. Other than the fact that It's white to play. this variation is better if you want a more even game, with slower game play. There's not really much else to say, other than it's equal.

      Obviously there's more to the Italian than this, so study up if you want to REALLY master this opening! I don't want this to be a nerdy blog about tactics and stuff, soo... See you in the next blog!