Open · a plan for White
Italian Game: Hungarian Defense
6/6
1.e4e52.Nf3Nc63.Bc4Be7
Live databaseLichess 1600–2000 · blitz + rapid
Italian Game: Hungarian Defense5.2M games · White to move
MoveWhite / draw / BlackPlayedGamesScore
26%1.4M51%
25%1.3M53%
19%1.0M51%
14%712k49%
13%668k49%
1.1%60k50%
0.7%39k50%
0.4%19k48%
0.2%11k35%
0.2%8.1k52%
Famous games in this line1.0k master games
Nepomniachtchi, I. (2773) – Artemiev, V. (2700)Navara, D. (2736) – Laznicka, V. (2675)Pruijssers, R. (2536) – Carlsen, M. (2834)Areshchenko, A. (2652) – Jobava, Ba (2687)Savchenko, Boris (2564) – Artemiev, Vladislav (2716)Shirov, Alexei (2695) – Campora, Daniel Hugo (2550)Van Foreest, Jorden (2695) – Ernst, S. (2539)Spassky, Boris V (2610) – Hort, Vlastimil (2620)Heroes of this opening Carlsen, M. · Jobava, Ba
- Family
- Italian Game
- Category
- Open
- First move
- 1.e4
- ECO
- C50
- Line
- 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Be7
Classical
★ Read the guide: Italian GameExplore all 184 Italian Game lines →Keep exploring
Go deeper — named lines from here
Scotch Game: Benima Defense4.d4 exd4 · 1 deeper lineItalian Game: Hungarian Defense, Tartakower Variation4.d4 exd4 5.c3 Nf6 6.e5 Ne4
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