the italian
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Jul 30, 2007
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#2
I like playing the 2 Knights' Defense against the Italian Game (which, ironically, was first examined by the Portuguese writer/player, Pedro Damiano).
For the Italian, I like the most passive variations, since they are recommended for bad players. The Ruy Lopez is a much better opening, but is only for higher-skilled players.
I've heard that, for terrible players, the Italian is the best opening to play.
The Italian Game is a fair opening, however it makes no attempt to play for an advantage and basically hands black equality. The wilder lines (the Fried Liver and the Evans Gambit) tend to be slightly unsound, and always favour black with best play- but at the lower levels, they can be powerful weapons. It all depends on your style of play...
I like playing boring, simple, drawish games in the Italian, trying to bore my opponent into mistakes.
mattattack99 wrote:
I like playing boring, simple, drawish games in the Italian, trying to bore my opponent into mistakes.
Agreed. I like to make my games as boring as possible, so hopefully my opponent will fall asleep and lose on time.
Here is an example:
Xylograph wrote:
4.Nc3 is a big mistake. Black can immediately equalize with 4...Nxe4 followed by d5. The only testing moves instead of Nc3 are d4 or Ng5, and actually 0-0 as well. I guess you could also play 4.d3, but that's lame \:
According to computers, d3 is the best move in that situation.
I think we should stop playing boring openings like the italian and play the scotch.
To find out more join The Scotch Team.
http://www.chess.com/groups/view/the-scotch-fans-team
Xylograph wrote:
G-Money7 wrote:
Xylograph wrote:
4.Nc3 is a big mistake. Black can immediately equalize with 4...Nxe4 followed by d5. The only testing moves instead of Nc3 are d4 or Ng5, and actually 0-0 as well. I guess you could also play 4.d3, but that's lame \:
According to computers, d3 is the best move in that situation.
Sure, it may be, but I don't really trust computers when it comes to openings. And even if it is, it gives black no trouble at all. d4 and Ng5 might not be as strong according to computer analysis, but you have to play one of them to try for an advantage (I think..?).
The Italian is more of a drawish position (at least in the variations I play), which is a plus for people like me who lose most games. Going for the win just isn't my style...
Italian game can be really boring or really wild. Depends on how much you want to risk. Also at the fact that the openings are unsound like the evans gambit or the lolli has a grain of truth to it, sure if you play perfectley against it black can gain the advantage but OTB chess and fighting one of those openings vs corespondance chess where you have days to see the best defence. Kasparov played the evans gambit against Anand in 1995 and beat him in 25 moves! So please do not call the Italian game boring.
Xylograph wrote:
Syntax_error wrote:
Italian game can be really boring or really wild. Depends on how much you want to risk. Also at the fact that the openings are unsound like the evans gambit or the lolli has a grain of truth to it, sure if you play perfectley against it black can gain the advantage but OTB chess and fighting one of those openings vs corespondance chess where you have days to see the best defence. Kasparov played the evans gambit against Anand in 1995 and beat him in 25 moves! So please do not call the Italian game boring.
Well, first of all the lolli attack is very sound. White gets an advantage in pretty much all lines. The evans gambit is also sound. With perfect play black might equalize, but I'm quite sure that white isn't any worse. And this tends to hold true with openings like the king's gambit - I think many people lable these as "unsound" or "refuted" simply because at the highest levels they allow black easy equality or a simplifed game with no winning chances, but for club players they are perfectly good choices. I strongly feel that in the club level white has a better chance to get an edge in one of the sharp lines in the giuoco piano than in the main lines of ruy lopez.
You said what I wanted to say only better.
hi all. ive just started using this website. just wondering what everyone thought about the italian game, and its variations. i personally prefer to use the more agressive variations, ( evans gambit and the knight advance in responce to the two knights defence).