The goal of the Italian opening is to quickly control the center of board. This is initially achieved with moves with your knight and pawn.
If you are following along with the chess.com computer board, the instructions on how to use the buttons on the page can be found in the Tips section in Figure 1.
1. Move the pawn on e2 to e4
Note: Moving the king’s pawn in the initial move is very common. So, more experienced players may respond well or may try to disrupt less experienced players.
2. Move the knight on g1 to f3
Observe: This puts pressure on black’s pawn on e5. Thus, black must respond with a defensive move to protect the pawn.
Note: Also, this move adds more control to the center and gets you a step closer to castling.
3. Move the bishop on f1 to c4
Note: This puts the bishop on its most effective square. The bishop is at the center of the board with a longer diagonal that puts pressure on the weak f7-pawn.
Analysis
In the history of chess, this is one of the oldest openings and dates back to around the 1600s. Overall, this is opening leads to a more aggressive and open style of play. This is effective for beginners because it creates threats early in the game.
The defining move of this opening the “Italian bishop” on c4, which is classified as a more aggressive move.
Using chess.com’s Stockfish analysis board, the odds at the end of step 3 are shown below.
Therefore, this opening move set gives you a slight advantage in the early game. However, your advantage in the game can be lost just as fast as you got it with one bad move!
Final Recommended Move
4. Move the king to g1 to initiate the castling move
5. Move the rook to f1 to complete the move
Note: As mentioned in the introduction, it is always a good idea to castle early to protect your king and to put your rook in a stronger position. In this position, the Stockfish analysis with a 20 future moves consideration shows that white has a +0.41 advantage.
Notice: According to chess.com, a “winning advantage” is around +1.25-1.50. However, you do not see this number while you are playing and this is usually not achieved just from the opening moves.
Chess Game Examples vs. Computer
https://www.chess.com/play/computer
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