The Italian Game

The Italian game nowadays is one of the absolute most popular opening choices played from beginner level right up to the best players in the world. Therefore, it is a very good opening to familiarize yourself with. In this course we’re going to be looking at it not as a repertoire for white nor as a repertoire from the black perspective. Instead we’re simply going to examine the main possibilities that can arise from the Italian game with the idea that we are simply students of the game and we want to be able to understand the resulting positions. After this the student is free to play the positions that arise with the black pieces, with the white pieces or even with both colors. The major topics that we’re going to look at is of course the classical Italian which is when black meets white’s move bishop to c4 with the mirror move bishop to c5, also known as the main variation with 3…Bc5. But then after this we are also going to examine the equally popular move which is 3…Nf6, the two knights defense. Sometimes in the Italian game we can actually transpose into a Scotch gambit via the particular move orders that we will be looking at in this course and so for completeness we are also going to be looking at a lot of Scotch gambit positions. The course overall is going to include many types of positions and many styles of play will arise where we’re going to include from gambit to very solid maneuvering positions. However, from start to finish we will always try to stay objective and show lines that are correct for both colors. We are not going to be too speculative, but we are certainly going to recommend lines that are going to be a very good practical idea against your opponents. Some of these lines will be things such as the Max-Lange attack or the Deutz gambit which from a white perspective are very dangerous weapons. If you like the sound of it and you want to explore the Italian game further, please join and let’s get ready to begin. This course is intended for all players, from beginners to advanced players with a FIDE rating of 1000-2000+ ELO. A complete set of PGNs of everything covered in this course can be downloaded and will help you to analyze it at your own pace and convenience.