These moves sucks. 4.b4 is best. (The Evans Gambit)
Giuoco Piano, 4. O-O
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It is a book move.
It is a passive move (O-O), hence you may give black the initiative.
why didn't he go for the spanish/ruy lopez?
interesting. . .
It's not passive or bad, and has been played occasionally at very high level. The usual idea is to play a gambit on move 5 with 5.d4!?; check this article http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/games/java/2009/movsesian-adams.htm.
5.Re1 is ok but not terribly inspiring. It kind of work against the passive 6...d6, but 6...Nxe4! shows that the e4 pawn is not as protected as it looks :).
bresando wrote:
It's not passive or bad, and has been played occasionally at very high level. The usual idea is to play a gambit on move 5 with 5.d4!?; check this article http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/games/java/2009/movsesian-adams.htm.
5.Re1 is ok but not terribly inspiring. It kind of work against the passive 6...d6, but 6...Nxe4! shows that the e4 pawn is not as protected as it looks :).
This more or less hits at the matter.
It's not that 4.0-0 is bad, it's just that it gives black extra, aggressive options that (as white) you simply don't have to deal with if you intend to play otherwise normal c3-d3 or c3-d4 lines.
If you intend to play d4 as a gambit, then 4.0-0 makes all the sense in the world. That option isn't as frequent or popular, and so is played a lot less frequently, which is why it doesn't turn up as often in books and databases.
Jun 10, 2013
0
#8
Thanks everybody for the comments.
Yes, I exaggerated when I said 4. O-O wasn't a book move.
I was thinking that white could play c3-d4 very favorably, but, playing around with the analysis board, it looks like 7...Re8 would have been fine, and I like bresando's suggestion of 6...Nxe4.
Normally it is used as a move order in the Italian to lure black into the d4 gambit lines. After 4. 0-0 Nf6 5. d4 exd5 6. e5 white certainly does have compensation for his pawn. This is a very complex line that not many black players know well and offers white good chances to win.
Easier for black is to answer 4. 0-0 with .. d6 and just get a normal transposition to the normaly lines where white has a some less options than after 4. c3 but can still play the normal Italian d3 lines.
This isn't a book move, but I don't really see how black can do better than against 4. c3. I won this game against it, but I think I was worse out of the opening.
So, why is 4. c3 more popular than 4. O-O?