Most grandmasters have largely abandoned the Italian Game in favour of the Ruy Lopez (3.Bb5) and Scotch (3.d4), considering those two openings better tries for a long-term advantage, but the Italian is still popular in correspondence chess, where players are allowed access to published theory, and in games between amateurs.
•
T. Harding and G. S. Botterill: The Italian Game (1977), Batsford, ISBN 0-7134-3261-6
This trap is what gives the line its name; the great English master Joseph Henry Blackburne reputedly used it to win shillings from amateurs.
Italian | Italian language | video game | Italian people | role-playing game | Rose Bowl Game | Italian cuisine | Game Boy Advance | game | Exhibition game | Orange Bowl (game) | Game Boy | video game developer | Italian American | Game of Thrones | board game | The Game | role-playing video game | Video game | Italian Navy | Italian literature | arcade game | Major League Baseball All-Star Game | adventure game | Italian Socialist Party | The Italian Job | Italian Army | Game (rapper) | The Name of the Game | Italian Renaissance |
A bishop so developed is characteristic of the Italian Game, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 (particularly the Giuoco Piano, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5, where both players have Italian bishops), and stands in contrast to the "Spanish" bishop on b5 characteristic of the Ruy Lopez.
Black's most common reply is 2...Nc6, which usually leads to the Ruy Lopez (3.Bb5), Italian Game (3.Bc4), or Scotch Game (3.d4), though 3.Nc3 Nf6 (the Four Knights Game), often played in the late 19th to early 20th century, or, less commonly, 3....g6, (the Three Knights Game), are other possibilities.
The Black counterattack in the centre also avoids the Ruy Lopez, Giuoco Piano (and other lines of the Italian Game), and the Scotch Game.
The opening is now considered inferior to 3.Bb5, the Ruy Lopez, and 3.Bc4, the Italian Game, and is accordingly rarely seen today at any level of play.