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

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.

Practise the line

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

Your move 1 of 30/3

1.e4e5
2.Nf3Nc6
3.Bc4Bc5

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.

Trading the pieces you opened lines for

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d4 exd4 5.Nxd4 Nxd4 6.Qxd4 Qf6

The mistake: Playing 4.d4 and then recapturing on d4 with the knight and the queen, to keep the pawn count level.
Why it costs: 4.d4 is played to open the centre while White is the better developed side. Trading the knights and bringing the queen out to be met by 6…Qf6 undoes both halves of that: the pieces that were ahead have left the board, the queens follow them, and the bishop on c4 has nothing to look at.
Instead: 5.c3, giving the pawn back for the centre and the initiative, or 5.O-O with the Max Lange in mind. If neither appeals, play 4.d3 and take the slow game on purpose.

Walking into the Traxler

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Ng5 Nf6 5.Nxf7 Bxf2+

The mistake: Playing 4.Ng5 and grabbing on f7, as though this were the Two Knights with the bishop still at home.
Why it costs: 4…Nf6 turns the position into the Traxler Counterattack, and 5.Nxf7 is answered by 5…Bxf2+! — a bishop given up to drag the king out. Whether White survives 6.Kxf2 Nxe4+ or 6.Kf1 Qe7 is a question of remembering analysis that is a century old and still argued about, at the board, with the clock running.
Instead: 4.c3 or 4.d3. The bishop on c5 is defending f2 the whole time, which changes the arithmetic on f7 — the fork trick belongs to the move orders where Black's bishop is not there.

Queenside expansion with the knight still on b1

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d3 Nf6 5.O-O O-O 6.c3 d6 7.b4 Bb6 8.a4 a6

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.

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.

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.