Openings · C23–C24

Bishop's Opening

The bishop goes to c4 before the knight goes anywhere: an Italian without committing the knight, and a way to sidestep the Petrov.

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4played as White

The idea

2.Bc4 puts the bishop on its best diagonal at once and keeps the f-pawn free. Against 2…Nf6 White can play 3.d3 and build slowly, or 3.d4 and gambit — options the Italian move order gives away by putting the knight on f3 first.

Its other job is avoidance: no Petrov, no Two Knights unless you allow it, and against club opposition a lot of positions your opponent has never studied. The cost is that it does nothing about e5, so Black is comfortable if White plays without a plan.

Practise the line

You play White; the other side answers on its own. Nothing here is saved or graded.

Your move 1 of 20/2

1.e4e5
2.Bc4

Your move. Drag a piece, or tap it and then its square.

Common mistakes

Three that come up again and again below master level. Each is ordinary opening theory — a named trap, or the error every coach corrects — not a statistic, and not drawn from anybody's games.

Taking on f7 for its own sake

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.Bxf7+ Kxf7

The mistake: Trading the good bishop for a pawn to make the black king move.
Why it costs: It is a piece for a pawn. The king on f7 is awkward for a few moves and perfectly safe after them, and White has nothing left to attack with — one piece is not an attack. Black plays …d5, walks the king to g8 and is a piece up.
Instead: 3.d3 or 3.Nf3, keeping the bishop pointed at f7 for the moment when a second piece can join it.

Recapturing on d4 with the queen

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d4 exd4 4.Qxd4 Nc6

The mistake: Playing the 3.d4 gambit and then taking the pawn back immediately.
Why it costs: 4…Nc6 develops with tempo and the queen has to move again. Two of White's first four moves were queen moves, and Black has caught up in development while winning them.
Instead: 4.Nf3, the Urusov Gambit, where the pawn is genuinely worth a lead in development — 4…Nxe4 5.Qxd4 gives White an initiative that has been analysed for a century and a half.

The four-move mate, tried anyway

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Qh5 Qe7 4.Nf3 Nf6

The mistake: 3.Qh5, hoping for 3…Nf6 and mate on f7.
Why it costs: 3…Qe7 defends f7 and e5 at once, and then …Nf6 comes with an attack on the queen. White spends the next three moves retreating and Black develops for free, which is how every early queen sortie ends against somebody who has seen one before.
Instead: 3.Nf3 or 3.d3. The bishop on c4 is a long-term threat to f7; announcing it on move three throws that away.

Try it on one of your own

The board above is for the line itself; this is for a game you played. Paste a game in this opening, or pull one from chess.com, and every move is graded against what the engine would have played. Open the board, read how the grading works, or go back to the other openings.