Openings · C50–C54

Italian Game, Giuoco Piano

The quiet game: both bishops point at f7 and f2, and White chooses between the old d4 and the modern slow squeeze.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5played as White

Play it through on the board below.

Practise the line

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

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Your move 1 of 30/3
  1. 1.e4e5
  2. 2.Nf3Nc6
  3. 3.Bc4Bc5

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

The idea

3…Bc5 is the classical answer to the Italian, and it stakes the same claim White does — a bishop on the long diagonal aimed at the enemy king's cover. Nothing is loose and nothing is forced, which is what the name means.

White then picks a speed. The old way is c3 and d4 at once, opening the centre while Black's king is still at home. The modern way — the Giuoco Pianissimo — is d3, c3, h3 and the knight from b1 to d2 to f1 to g3, building for ten moves before touching the centre. Both are respectable; playing half of one and half of the other is not.

Common mistakes

Three that come up again and again below master level: named traps and the errors every coach corrects.

Taking back on d4 with the knight

After 5…Bxd4
  1. 1.
  2. 2.
  3. 3.
  4. 4.
  5. 5.
The mistake
Playing 4.d4 and recapturing 5.Nxd4 after 4…exd4, to keep the pawns level.
Why it costs
It loses a piece. The bishop on c5 is already looking at d4: 5…Bxd4, and the bishop is defended by the knight on c6, so the queen cannot take it back. The engine rates it winning for Black. That bishop is why 4.d4 is a gambit in this position rather than a pawn trade.
Instead
4.c3 first, so d4 arrives with a pawn behind it, or 4.d3 and the slow game on purpose. If you do play 4.d4, play it as the gambit it is: 5.O-O or 5.c3, and leave the pawn.

Ng5 with nothing in the way

After 4…Qxg5
  1. 1.
  2. 2.
  3. 3.
  4. 4.
The mistake
Playing 4.Ng5 to hit f7, as though this were the Two Knights Defence.
Why it costs
The e-pawn has left e7, so the queen on d8 looks straight down to g5: 4…Qxg5 takes the knight for nothing, and the engine rates it winning for Black. In the Two Knights, Ng5 is a real move because …Nf6 stands on that diagonal and blocks it. Here nothing does.
Instead
4.c3 or 4.d3. In the Giuoco Piano the target is the centre, not f7, and the bishop on c5 is guarding f2 the whole time anyway.

Queenside expansion with the knight still on b1

After 8…a6
  1. 1.
  2. 2.
  3. 3.
  4. 4.
  5. 5.
  6. 6.
  7. 7.
  8. 8.
The mistake
Playing the Pianissimo setup and then launching b4 and a4 before the queen's knight has moved.
Why it costs
The slow Italian is slow for a reason: the useful pieces arrive by the route Nb1–d2–f1–g3, and h3 keeps a bishop off g4 while they travel. Starting a pawn advance on the far wing with that knight at home leaves the kingside defended by nobody, and …d5 answers a flank advance the way it is supposed to.
Instead
h3, Re1, Nbd2, Nf1, Ng3 first. The queenside advance is a plan for later, and a much better plan once the pieces are where they are going.

Essential for beginners

  • 1 in 30games end with White giving checkmate by move 15. In all openings: 1 in 33.
  • 1 in 34games end with White getting checkmated by move 15. In all openings: 1 in 54.Trap danger

From 6,566 Lichess games in this opening between players rated under 1200, blitz and slower, September 2026. How we counted.

What the engine says

After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5, these are White's six best moves according to Stockfish, with the bar showing White's chance of winning. The whole list sits within 1 percentage point of win chance: none of them is a mistake, and the choice is about the positions you want to play.

  1. O-O+0.3
  2. c3+0.3
  3. d3+0.3
  4. h3+0.2
  5. Nc3+0.2
  6. a4+0.2

The engine's main line from O-O: O-O Nf6 d3 d6 c3 O-O Nbd2 a6.

Stockfish 18, depth 24. Scores are in pawns from White's side. Another engine or depth will move individual numbers a little; the picture does not change. How we check.

Where it fits

The Italian Game, Giuoco Piano is a variation of the Italian Game, whose page covers the ideas this one takes for granted.

Analyse a game you played in itAll openings