Italian game

Italian game
a b c d e f G H   8th 8th 7th 7th 6th 6th 5 5 4th 4th 3 3 2 2 1 1   a b c d e f G H
Trains	1. e2-e4 e7-e5 2. Ng1-f3 Nb8-c6 3. Bf1-c4 Bf8-c5
ECO key	C50, C53 + C54
Named after	the Italian chess master Gioachino Greco (17th century)
Oldest source	Göttingen manuscript (15th century)
Played first	16th century by Damiano de Odemira and Giulio Cesare Polerio

The Italian game is an opening of the chess game , which is divided into several variants. It is also known as Giuoco piano and is one of the oldest openings.

Turn order

The Italian game is one of the open games and develops from the king knight game .

Typically it starts with the trains:

1. e2-e4 e7-e5
2. Ng1-f3 Nb8-c6
3. Bf1-c4 Bf8-c5

In the Italian game White aims at the sensitive point f7 with his bishop development after c4 and continues his development. In this sequence of moves there are both very sharp variants and particularly positional continuations (the Giuoco pianissimo 4. d2 – d3).

Closely related is the double knight in the second step with 3.… Ng8 – f6, which can lead to very sharp variations after 4. Nf3 – g5, on the other hand it returns to the quiet variations of the Italian game after 4. d2 – d3.

Overview of the variants

• The Greco attack arises in the main variation 4. c2 – c3 Ng8 – f6 5. d2 – d4 e5xd4 6. c3xd4 Bc5 – b4 + through 7. Nb1 – c3 (7. Bc1 – d2 avoids the complications)
  • The Möller attack 7.… Nf6xe4 (7.… d5 ?! happened in Steinitz - von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895 ) 8. 0–0 Bb4xc3 9. d4 – d5 (Möller's improvement) Bc3 – f6 10. Rf1 – e1 Nc6 –E7 11. Re1xe4 d7 – d6 12. Bc1 – g5 Bf6xg5 13. Nf3xg5 h7 – h6 with the two attacking paths
    • 14. Bc4 – b5 + Bc8 – d7 (14.… c6? Which is not followed by 15. dxc6? 0–0, but 15. Nxf7! Kxf7 16. Qf3 + with a strong attack) 15. Qd1 – e2 Bd7xb5 16. Qe2xb5 + Qd8– d7 17. Qb5xb7 0–0 18. Re1 – e1 Re8 – b8 ! (18.… Rfb8 19. Rxe7 Qxe7 20. Qxb8 + Rxb8 21. Re4xe7 h6xg5 22. Rxc7 Rxb2 23. h3 Rxa2 24. Rc6 and the rook ending is a draw.) 19. Qb7xa7 (19.Rxe7? Fails because after 19. … Qxe7 capturing 20. Qxb8 ?? this time without check, so that White is mate after 20.… Qxe1 #. 19.… Ne7xd5 20. Qa7xd4 Qd7 – f5! 21. Ng5 – f3 Rb8 – b4 22. Nf3 – h4 (22. Qxb4 ?! Nxb4 23. Rxb4 shouldn't be enough for White) 22.… Qf5 – g5! 23. Nh4 – f3 Rb4xd4 24. Nf3xg5 Rd4 – d2 and Black wins an important pawn on b2 because White first has to save his g5 knight. That is also the reason why Black only exchanges queens indirectly after inserting the moves 22.… Qg5! 23. Nf3 allows
    • and 14. Qd1 – e2 h6xg5 15. Re1 – e1 Bc8 – e6 16. d5xe6 f7 – f6 emerged as the main variation over time.
• The systems with 4. d2 – d3 are called Giuoco pianissimo (very calm play). Historically, it is primarily understood to mean the symmetrical Italian four-knight game with 4. d2 – d3 Ng8 – f6 5. Nb1 – c3 d7 – d6 (or move changes ).
• The positionally sustainable headway 4. c2-c3-f6 Ng8 5. d2-d3 f6 Ng8-by 3. ... 4. d2-d3 Bf8-c5 5. c2-c3 arise can be, sometimes also as Giuoco pianissimo referred . It was not popularized until the 1970s and 1980s through John Nunn and various young Soviet players; see for example Kasparow - Lautier, Linares 1994 . 5.… d7 – d6 6. b2 – b4 is the Blackburne Bird variation.
• The related Evans gambit 4. b2 – b4 is a separate opening.
• 4. d2 – d4 is the Italian gambit, which can also be reached with 4. 0–0 Ng8 – f6 5. d2 – d4. The game goes to Max-Lange after 4. d2 – d4 e5xd4 5. 0–0 Ng8 – f6 6. e4 – e5 as well as after 4. 0–0 Ng8 – f6 5. d2 – d4 e5xd4 6. e4 – e5 -Attack over. In an immediate 4. d2 – d4 , Black has the sensible wait move d7 – d6 after Bc5xd4 5. Nf3xd4 Nc6xd4 6. 0–0 (played by George Koltanowski ). 6. Bc1 – e3 forces a concrete reaction.
  • On 4. 0–0 Ng8 – f6 5. d2 – d4 Bc5xd4 6. Nf3xd4 Nc6xd4 7. f2 – f4 and 7. Bc1 – g5 are White's main answers.
• 4. 0–0 postpones the decision about the pawn structure by 1 move. After 4.… Ng8 – f6, however, the transition to the main line 4. c2 – c3 and 5. d2 – d4 is no longer possible. In the game Dubois - Steinitz, London 1862 , 5. d2 – d3 covered his neighbor on e4.

Italian four knights game

In the Italian four knights game, 6. Bc1 – g5 ( Canal variant ) or 6. Bc1 – e3 can follow. The name Canal variant is derived from a game that was played at the Karlovy Vary Tournament in 1929 between Esteban Canal and Hans Johner . This variant had already occurred several times in master games.

After 6. Bc1 – g5 the threat of 7. Nd5 and 8. Nxf6 gf6 can be fought with a double pawn with 6.… h7 – h6. With 7. Bg5xf6 Qd8xf6 8. Nc3 – d5 Qf6 – d8 9. c2 – c3 a7 – a6 10. d3 – d4 Bc5 – a7 White catches up with his center formation. A modern alternative tried out by David Bronstein is 6.… Nc6 – a5, with Black striving to exchange White's king's bishop.

history

theory

The opening was mentioned as early as the 15th century in the Göttingen manuscript and in the Repetición de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez (published 1497) by Luis Ramírez Lucena . The then valid rules for castling differ from those of modern chess.

Modern castling was first mentioned in 1620 by Gioacchino Greco . In the collection of games published by him, the game

4. c2 – c3 Ng8 – f6 5. d2 – d4 e5xd4 6. c3xd4 Bf8 – b4 + 7. Nb1 – c3 Nf6xe4 8. 0–0 Ne4xc3 9. b2xc3 Bb4xc3 10. Qd1 – b3 Bc3xa1 11. Bc4xf7 + Ke8 – f8 12. Bc1 – g5 Nc6 – e7 13. Nf3 – e5 La1xd4 14. Bf7 – g6 d7 – d5 15. Qb3 – f3 + Bc8 – f5 16. Bg6xf5 Bd4xe5 17. Bf5 – e6 + Be5 – f6 18. Bg5xf6 Kf8 – e8 19. Bf6xg7 1 : 0

specified. This variant has had theoretical significance since then. Nowadays it is considered the better choice for Black to take the c3 knight on move eight with the b4 bishop instead of the e4 knight.

Treatises on the opening can be found in the chess books by Philipp Stamma (1745), Giambattista Lolli (1763), Domenico Lorenzo Ponziani (1782), William Lewis and Paul Rudolph von Bilguer : Handbuch des Schachspiels (1843).

An important enrichment was the discovery of the gambit idea b2 – b4 by William Davies Evans in 1824 , which soon became the new main variation as the fourth white move.

Until the middle of the 19th century, the opening was called Giuoco piano (Italian, in German: "calm game"). The term " Italian game " can be found in the published 1857 collection of new chess games of Max Lange . In the middle of the 20th century, the world-class player Paul Keres subjected the opening to a thorough investigation. After that, correspondence chess world champion Jakow Borissowitsch Estrin was a leading expert.

practice

An early game, in which the names of both players have been handed down, took place in Modena before 1750 between Giambattista Lolli and Ercole del Rio . It was played with the rule of free castling:

3.… Ng8 – f6 4. Nb1 – c3 Bf8 – c5 5. Nf3 – g5 free castling Ke8 – h8 and Rh8 – f8 6. Ng5xf7 + Rf8xf7 7. Bc4xf7 Qd8 – f8 8. Bf7 – c4 Lc5xf2 + 9. Kg1 – f1 d7 –D5 10. Bc4 – e2 d5xe4 11. d2 – d3 Bf2 – h4 12. Kf1 – g1 Qf8 – c5 + 13. d3 – d4 Sc6xd4 14. Bc1 – e3 Nd4 – f3 + 15. Kg1 – f1 Dc5xe3 16. Qd1 – d8 + Nf6 -G8 17. Nc3-d1 De3-g1 + 18.Rh1xg1 Nf3xh2 # 0: 1

4. Bc4xf7 +? is the Jerome Gambit

Evans was able to win two games in London against the master player Alexander McDonnell : in 1826 or 1827 he opened with 4. 0–0 d7 – d6 5. b2 – b4 and in 1829 with the better immediate 4. b2 – b4.

The Evans Gambit was used alongside other variants of the Italian game in 1834 in the London competition between McDonnell and Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais .

The opening was often used in Wilhelm Steinitz's world championship fights at the end of the 19th century, especially when Steinitz led the black stones:

• Michail Chigorin played the Evans gambit in eight of his nine white games in Havana in 1889 (+4 = 1 −3, from White's point of view).
• Isidor Gunsberg played Italian in seven of his nine white games in New York in 1890 (+3 = 2 −2).
• Tschigorin played the Evans gambit (+4 = 3 −1) in eight of his twelve white games in Havana in 1892 .
• Against Emanuel Lasker , Steinitz played Italian twice as white (+1, = 1) in New York in 1894 and won once with black in Montreal.
• At the beginning of the revenge fight in Moscow in 1896 , Steinitz lost in Italian games twice as a white and once as a black.

Probably the most famous Italian opened is the game Steinitz - von Bardeleben, Hastings 1895 .

In the 20th century, the opening took a back seat in favor of other methods, especially after the Spanish opening 3. Bf1 – b5 was considered more sustainable by modern theory. Nevertheless, there were occasional renaissance of the Italian game:

• In the 1929 Karlovy Vary Tournament, Esteban Canal was successful in several games with the variant of Giuoco Pianissimo named after him .
• Bobby Fischer won in New York in 1963 with the Evans Gambit against Reuben Fine in just 17 moves.
• The Evans Gambit came back into fashion in 1995 when World Champion Garri Kasparov won the tournaments in Riga against Viswanathan Anand in 25 moves and in Amsterdam against Jeroen Piket in 29 moves.

literature

• Tim Harding, Simon Botterill: The Italian Game. Batsford, 1977.
• Jakow Borissowitsch Estrin: The Italian game. Franckh, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-440-05412-8 .
• Jözsef Pálkövi: Italian part and Evans Gambit. Caissa Chess Books, 1998.
• Jan Pinski: Italian Game and Evans Gambit. Everyman Chess, 2005, ISBN 1-85744-373-X .
• Jerzy Konikowski : Italian - played right. Joachim Beyer Verlag, Eltmann 2013, ISBN 978-3940417169 .
• Karsten Müller , Georgios Souleidis : Winning with the Slow (but Venomous!) Italian. New in Chess, Alkmaar 2016, ISBN 978-90-5691-674-9 .
• Karsten Müller, Georgios Souleidis: Italian with c3 and d3. Joachim Beyer Verlag, Eltmann 2017, ISBN 978-3959200561 .
• Alexander Delchev : Bc4 against the Open Games. Chess Stars Publishing, 2018, ISBN 978-619-7188-17-2 .

swell

• Frank Mayer, Alessandro Sanvito: “La sua immagine rimarrà per semper conosciuta”. Gioacchino Greco - Il Callabroiis (1600-1630) . ( Memento of July 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 314 kB; 8 pages)
• Alessandro Nizzola: Italian Chess 1560-1880. The Special Moves and Their Consequences . ( Memento from September 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 13 pages; English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ F. Mayer, A. Sanvito: Gioacchino Greco - Il Calabrois (1600-1630)
2. ^ Information from Howard Staunton in The Chess-player's Handbook , according to T. Harding: The Kibitzer 64
3. ^ Max Lange: Collection of new chess games, with critical and historical notes , JJ Weber, Leipzig 1857
4. ↑ T. Harding: The Kibitzer 64
5. ^ A. Nizzola: Italian Chess 1560-1880