The Italian game is an opening that was invented in the 1600s by Gioacchino Greco, one of the first people to write about chess, and probably the first professional chess player. It consists to control the center with e4 and clear the kingside with Nf3 and Bc4, putting the bishop on a good diagonal, where it puts pressure immediately on the weak square f7 and the king can castle kingside very quickly. The bishop is a bit exposed to the center but it’s a good opening. It’s considered to be a drawish opening nowadays because most grandmasters play the Giuocco Piano game variation (Black) and then continue with a Giuocco Pianissimo or the mainline.

But these options are all boring (thus played by grandmasters, although this opening has lost its popularity in recent years). But since this opening is that boring, then why was it very popular in the romantic era (1400-1875, approximate dates, one side (normally white) sacks everything, and the other side takes everything and gets checkmated)? Well, we’re going to have a look at some crazy lines that were played back then or studied by myself, but some of the key moves are considered inaccuracies, mistakes, or even blunders nowadays. And you should keep in mind that most of these bad moves are greedy (wins premature material).

Variations in which these lines happen:

1. Blackburne-Shilling Gambit trap (Black)
2. Fried Liver Attack (White)
3. Evan’s Gambit (White)
4. Fishing Pole trap (Black)
5. Traxler counter-attack (refutation of the fried liver?)

   Let’s get started:

   1-Blackburne-Shilling gambit

    

                  This variation is a gambit played by Blackburne against Shilling apparently. This sacrifices a “poison pawn” which means a free pawn that shouldn’t be taken.

So you see that because of white’s greed, he got checkmated; Now obviously, not all your opponents are going to fall into this trap, and also some of them might fall but stop being greedy after Qg5, you can analyze it deeper with the chess.com analysis board. I believe that after Nd5 and white plays one of the moves I suggested in this position, white is better and can even set up a trap himself, but we’re done with this line now.

2-Fried Liver Attack

Well, this is an opening that you need to know although you’re vegetarian! It’s the craziest, spiciest and the most romantic opening ever, because of white sacrificing a piece in the opening like in the Cochrane Gambit. The idea was also spotted by Greco, and I believed that he called it the “Fegatello”, that is Italian for Fried Liver.

This is the Fried Liver Attack.

Here are some nice lines in this opening

                          3-Evans Gambit

Evans gambit is a very spicy opening that consists to sacrifice a pawn to divert the Bishop on c5 to b4 so white can take the center with tempo. It was discovered by captain Evans, a sea captain when he was crossing the Atlantic in 1827. He played it for the first time against the Irish grandmaster Alexander Mcconnel.

This is the Evans gambit

Here are some crazy lines of the Evans Gambit.