Open · a plan for White
Italian Game: Evans Gambit, Leonhardt Countergambit
12/12
1.e4e52.Nf3Nc63.Bc4Bc54.b4Bxb45.c3Ba56.d4b5
Live databaseLichess 1600–2000 · blitz + rapid
Italian Game: Evans Gambit, Leonhardt Countergambit4.5k games · White to move
MoveWhite / draw / BlackPlayedGamesScore
72%3.2k45%
13%58245%
7%31246%
3.7%16644%
3.4%15119%
0.4%1932%
0.2%856%
0.1%617%
0.1%530%
0.1%333%
Famous games in this line11 master games
Yankelevich, Lev (2461) – Horvath, Dominik (2446)Beerdsen, Thomas (2513) – Royal, Shreyas (2375)Munoz Pantoja, M. (2441) – Bruedigam, M. (2375)Degenbaev, Aziz (2260) – Horvath, Dominik (2542)Belyakov, Bogdan (2481) – Nasyrova, Ekaterina (2271)Rodriguez, Keith A. (2362) – Jones, Kenneth E. (2366)Ottesen, Søren Rud (2356) – Hablizel, Frank (2330)Rodriguez, Keith A. (2362) – Ledford, Steven O. (2317)Heroes of this opening Beerdsen, Thomas · Belyakov, Bogdan
- Family
- Italian Game
- Category
- Open
- First move
- 1.e4
- ECO
- C52
- Line
- 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. b4 Bxb4 5. c3 Ba5 6. d4 b5
GambitClassical
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From the archives
The Italian Game appears in the Göttingen manuscript (c. 1500) and in Polerio's notebooks — chess players have been putting the bishop on c4 for more than five hundred years. It fell out of top-level fashion for decades, then came back as White players went looking for a way round the Berlin Defence; Carlsen used the quiet Giuoco Pianissimo in the 2016 world-championship match.
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