Open · a plan for White

Italian Game: Scotch Gambit, Max Lange Attack, Long Variation

21/21
1.e4e52.Nf3Nc63.d4exd44.Bc4Nf65.O-OBc56.e5d57.exf6dxc48.Re1+Be69.Ng5Qd510.Nc3Qf511.Nce4
Live databaseLichess 1600–2000 · blitz + rapid
Italian Game: Scotch Gambit, Max Lange Attack, Long Variation28k games · Black to move
MoveWhite / draw / BlackPlayedGamesScore
60%17k50%
22%6.0k51%
8.8%2.4k40%
1.6%44152%
0.9%25542%
0.9%24328%
0.3%8030%
0.3%759%
0.2%5617%
Famous games in this line50 master games
Bergez, Luc (2424)Flear, Glenn C (2519)20001–0Alarcon Casellas, Rolando (2410)De la Paz Perdomo, Frank (2477)20100–1Cueto Chajtur, Johny (2389)Soppe, Guillermo (2471)20000–1Fette, Martin (2385)Inkiov, Ventzislav (2470)19890–1Buchnicek, Petr (2398)Voloshin, Leonid (2455)2000½–½Vatter, Hans Joachim (2265)Nunn, John DM (2585)1986½–½Garcia Fernandez, Carlos (2360)Mitkov, Nikola (2470)19941–0Delaney, Paul (2305)Hebden, Mark (2510)19990–1
Heroes of this opening Bergez, Luc · De la Paz Perdomo, Frank · Soppe, Guillermo · Inkiov, Ventzislav
Category
Open
First move
1.e4
ECO
C56
Line
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. O-O Bc5 6. e5 d5 7. exf6 dxc4 8. Re1+ Be6 9. Ng5 Qd5 10. Nc3 Qf5 11. Nce4
GambitSharpAggressiveClassical
Read the guide: Italian GameExplore all 184 Italian Game lines
Keep exploring
Nearby lines in the family
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.

Study this opening