Basics of The Italian Game | Chess Video Lecture | Learn to Play Chess: From a Novice to a Fierce Competitor - Hobbies

okay guys I'm gonna show you some quick
variations out of the Italian game also
known as the JUCO piano it's actually
not an opening that's preferred by
grandmasters because it's considered
somewhat jarash and the ideas are not as
deep as what you would find and for
example the Queen's Gambit or the roy
lopez or the spanish game but it's a
good way to get started I think with
very straightforward developing move so
the Italian game starts with E for and
if your opponent responds with E 5 you'd
proceed with what's probably the most
logical and expected move Knight to f3
attacking the e5 on now let's say black
brings out this Knight to c6 the Italian
game is characterized by this move right
here Bishop to c4 as opposed to Bishop
to b5 which would be the Spanish but
we're looking at the Italian so let's
say really quickly we go to c4 the
opponent goes to c5 the best
continuation is c3 to try to keep the
initiative other moves such as Knight to
c3 castling are also okay d3 is also ok
but this is the best continuation or as
regarded as such let's say you have
Knight to f6 attacking this pawn now
instead of going d4 which is also
probably a good maybe the best way to
play it we're gonna look at this modest
continuation d3 now black castles and
white immediately jumps into his
territory looking for trouble
so black doesn't really know what white
is up to but he goes to kick him with
the h6 pawn and this allows for a nice
little sacrifice play with h4 so black
snaps the knight H takes G and now we
have this beautiful open file for our
rook so black wanting to keep his
material advantage retreats the knight
and now at the queen of coming to h5
black is busted he actually only has one
move to stop made in one
which is bringing the rook to e8 giving
the King a little bit of space to escape
but rather than going clean takes a
night we go Queen takes f7 forcing the
King into the corner and then one more
sacrifice rook takes h7 the King has to
take the rook and now the Queen just
returns to h5 checkmate with the bishop
cutting off the g8 square so that's a
miniature that was played by Greco maybe
the first genius of chess but it
illustrates a lot of good ideas like the
use of a sacrifice to open a file
it also shows in the exchange trading
material for time and space because it's
one unit of time when black retreats his
night to h7 and it's more than anything
space for that rook to dominate the
h-file so once the Queen joins the rook
on the h-file black is hopeless so that
was just a quick look at the Italian
game or the JUCO piano I recommend it
for young players it's a great way to
get your chess game started