This post is going to be all about, which is one of the most attacking chess openings for white. I will show you all the important ideas, strategies, tricks, and traps in order to play this successfully. And plus, I also have a really interesting chess puzzle for you all. Let’s see if you can solve that. So stay tuned till the end and keep watching chess Talk.
We start with the Italian game. E4, E5, knight f3, knight c6. Then we get the bishops out, turning it into the Giuoco Piano opening. Now starts with the moving pawn to b4, Sacrificing our pawn to gain some counterplay. From here, black has 3 options. He can take with his bishop, he can take with his knight or he can simply decline and move his bishop to some other square.
The most common move and probably the best Move for black would be to take this pawn with his bishop. We will discuss the other 2 options later on in this video. As a white, our objective is to distract the bishop from the center and gain some time by playing the pawn c3. Black will have to retreat his bishop since we are attacking it. Taking it back to f8 does not make much sense. Moving it to d6 isn’t good either since it will block this pawn and ultimately hamper the development of this bishop.
So basically, black has 3 logical replies- bishop e7, bishop a5, and bishop c5. Let’s look at bishop e7 first. I won’t be getting into all the specific lines because that’s obviously not possible. But I will show you all the major ideas and strategies that will help you in getting into match-winning positions. The most important thing that you need to keep in mind is that you should keep throwing punches at black. You cannot afford to take it easy since most times, you are going to be a pawn down so you will need to keep attacking to open up the game as soon as possible.
Okay, so bishop e7, then we play d4, attacking the center. If black takes, then we can take back, and even though, we are a pawn down, we have good compensation. We are occupying the center. Our pieces are in attacking positions. We are one move away from castling. We can look to target this weak f7 square by bringing out our queen and knight. And we should be using this bishop to prevent this black king from castling. So we have a good game here. Going back, if black plays d6 to support this pawn, then we play queen b3, eyeing down this weak f7 square.
Now if knight a5, then we simply take with our bishop. It’s a check. He can’t go to d7 because knight e5 check, D takes on e5 and then queen e6 would be checkmate. So he will have to move his king to f8. But then, we have this beautiful move queen a4. And even if the king takes, we can take his knight. And if you see now, the material is even, the black king is out in the open, he can’t castle, we are ahead in development so this should be a good game for you. Going back, in this position, if he tries something like knight h6 supporting this pawn on f7.
Then we can simply remove this defender by taking on h6. Now after pawn takes back, bishop f7 check. If king d7, then queen e6 is a checkmate. And if the king moves to f8, then we will take our bishop back to h5 threatening a mate on the next move. It’s going to be very difficult for black to save this game from here. Going back, so we just saw what we can do if black moves his bishop back to e7.
Now let’s look at the most common move that you will see, which is, bishop to a5. And you have some really nasty tricks here. But wait, are you enjoying this video? If yes, then hit the thumbs up button right now. It really motivates me to provide more quality content on this channel. Okay, so its bishop a5, then we play pawn to d4, attacking the center. If d6, then simply queen b3 and you can continue with the same idea that we discussed earlier. Okay, now if he takes with his pawn, then we need to castle first because this bishop is pinning this pawn to our king.
Now if he decides to take another pawn, which most chess players do, then he is in big trouble. Let’s see how. After pawn takes on c3, we will again play queen b3. Black has to prevent this f7 check so he basically has 2 options – queen f6 and queen e7. Queen f6 seems better since it will also protect this c3 pawn.
But then, you can simply play pawn to e5, attacking the queen. If knight takes, then rook e1 pinning it to the king. If he tries to defend with d6, then queena4 check and this bishop are gone.Okay, let’s go back and look at queen e7 in this position. Black is giving up this pawn so let’s take it with our knight. Then you can expect knight to f6, a natural development move and at the same time, opening up these 2 squares for the king to castle.
We need to stop black from castling so let’s attack the queen by moving our knight to d5. If the knight takes, then we recapture with our pawn. Taking with the pawn is better because not only does it threaten the knight but it also opens up this line for our rook to attack the king. So eventually, the knight will have to move. Knight b4 will be a disaster for black because then we can play rook to e1 and the queen will be gone.
Going back, if he moves his knight to e5, then knight takes, queen, takes, and then we have this bishop b2 move to attack this queen and even the pawn behind it. If he plays queen g5 to support this pawn, then our strategy would be to first stop black from castling by playing queen a3. We will also look to push this queen out of this g5 square by playing h4. And at some point, we will launch our attack by bringing our rooks along this open line. As you can imagine, these guys are going to be mere spectators throughout the game and it’s just a matter of time before you finish off black.
Going back, in this position, I just wanted to show you one more move. In case, black decides to take on e4 with his queen, then you can go for something like bishop g5. What this does is that it puts additional pressure on f6, which means that even if black manages to castle, we will be able to take with our bishop and then fork the king and queen with our knight. Going back, even if he plays something else, we have another line of attack through our rooks in order to pin down this queen. So again, you have a lot of attacking options and this should be a good game for you.
Okay, now let’s go back again. We just saw how you can absolutely destroy black if he takes on c3. But what if he plays some other move like the bishop to b6 or d6 or even Knight to f6. Well, your strategy is going to be simple. You will look to take back this pawn. Your queen will soon be out on b3 to attackf7. You will have to prevent black from castling playing moves like bishop a3 or queen a3.
These knights should also be moving closer to the king like this. And ultimately, you will have to open up the game and attack with your rooks along with the e file. If you follow these ideas, you should be able to harass blacks throughout the game.
Okay, now let’s go back. We have looked at bishop e7, we have looked at bishop a5. Now let’s look at the bishop c5 move. But before moving on, just a reminder. In case you haven’t yet Subscribed, then hitthat Red Subscribe button right now so that you get all our channel updates.
So black plays bishop to c5, then again, we push the pawn to d4. E takes on d4 is forced, c takes on d4. And his bishop will now have to move. And you will see a similar situation as I showed you before if he moves his bishop back to b6. As you can tell, he will be losing time and development. We can bring our queen into action, we can castle kingside, this knight is going to be moving to c3. This bishop is also ready to jump to any square depending on the position. We have great center control, great development. All in all, this is very good compensation for a pawn.
Going back, if you are wondering what happens if black takes with his knight, then let me show it to you quickly. After knight takes on b4, we play c3. Please do not take this pawn on e5 because queen f6 and queen g5 can lead to some really nasty threats and double attacks. So after pawn c3, The black knight will have to retreat back to c6, then we can castle as usual and push this pawn on d4. Taking with the knight is generally not a good move because black simply loses a move, which helps white in development.
Okay, now one more situation could be where black simply decline to take your pawn and retreats his bishop back. Well, in that case, you do not lose a pawnwhereas, your opponent loses a move, which means he falls behind in development and your position automatically becomes better.
