Italian Game : Giuco Piano Variation Bc4,d3,c3 {updated}

let me explore again the italian opening. 

Let's talk about online chess and how blitz openings can be sharper than Over The Board Classical games.

This position is known as Giuco Piano variation and even Pianissimo sometimes.

Instead of going for c3 and d2-d4, White takes it slow. After 3 Bc4 Italian Game, White decides to go for d3,c3 followed by Nbd2 and only later on play for d3-d4. Instead of playing d2-d4 directly, it is a slow build-up.

I like to show the main ideas, i.e where pieces go for each side to go over the type of positions you get.

While there are different nuances, if you were to have an histogram of where pieces most often land, the arrows ( blue for White and green for Black) would probably show the mode of the distribution, i.e the most frequent destinations.

Now let me explore CLASSICAL CHESS for a minute with a top Grandmaster game along these lines.

Here we see the position after move 12 from White KRAMNIK vs ANAND Moscow 2016.

lets fast forward on move 19

Black retrieved the bishop to f8 and it could go to g7. White has pushed pawns on the queenside but the position is dynamic and complex with no clear advantage for any side.

lets stop on move 26, White  to play

The position is fairly symmetrical especially the pawn structure. But 1) White has more space and 2) more active pieces.

In this position Kramnik played 26 Rd5! which increases a bit the pressure.

Let's now show how the game continued and finished by a win for White.

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This game is quite instructive to show what type of position we get in this variation. please note that Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So and many other top GMs play the Italian Giuco Pianissimo variation with c3,d3. They do play it with both colors as 1e4 e5 is very popular at top level.

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HOW DO YOU SPICE UP YOUR OPENINGS ?

And how can you adapt such an opening to make it a weapon in blitz/bullet ?

well, I happen to take a look at top games played online by GMs in this opening and I found out you can add spices to the slow build-up.

And let me explain with one diagram, and again the arrows show the sharp idea you can use with White

I think the diagram is worth a thousand words. you intend to castle long and you plan g2-g4 and g4-g5 with attacking chances against the king.

Let me show one online game

and here we go, White launched the attack with 9g2-g4! .

Now you may say this is coffehouse chess, i.e attacking at all cost and may not be worth analyzing.  Well let's ask our favorite engine Stocfkish13 ( latest version available I think) at Depth 30 

Well, the engine prepares g2-g4 to 0-0 which is the classical chess way ( as per first game Kramnik-Anand and countless others).

Now let me show you how GM Mamedov finished off his opponent in this online blitz game

This was a longer post than usual but I hope you enjoyed the content.

Here's a recent game I played using the system explained on this post.

Feel free to comment or suggest your favorite opening traps or model games you use in your own games.