More recently, grandmasters Garry Kasparov and Jan Timman helped to re-popularize the Scotch when they used it as a surprise weapon to avoid the well-analysed Ruy Lopez.
video game | role-playing game | Rose Bowl Game | Game Boy Advance | game | Exhibition game | Orange Bowl (game) | Game Boy | video game developer | Game of Thrones | board game | The Game | role-playing video game | Video game | arcade game | Major League Baseball All-Star Game | adventure game | Scotch whisky | Game (rapper) | The Name of the Game | Game Show Network | Still Game | Role-playing game | Game | Doom (video game) | video game console | Richard Baker (game designer) | Captain N: The Game Master | Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (US game show) | The Generation Game |
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.
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.