C57 · Open · a plan for White
Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Traxler Counterattack, Knight Sacrifice Line
9/9
1.e4e52.Nf3Nc63.Bc4Nf64.Ng5Bc55.Nxf7
Live databaseLichess 1600–2000 · blitz + rapid
Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Traxler Counterattack, Knight Sacrifice Line601k games · Black to move
MoveWhite / draw / BlackPlayedGamesScore
90%538k57%
8.9%53k39%
0.4%2.3k22%
0.3%1.9k11%
0.3%1.5k5%
0.2%1.1k7%
0.2%9866%
0.1%6038%
0%1709%
0%13019%
Famous games in this line27 master games
Ninov, Nikolai (2515) – Marzolo, Cyril (2487)Saglione, Eduardo (2547) – Moreno Carretero, Carlos (2450)Castaneda, Georgui (2502) – Gubajdullin, Alexey (2455)Kalichkin, Igor (2258) – Tahirov, Farhad (2571)Horvath, Adam (2412) – Bokros, Albert (2405)Johnstone, Glenn (2300) – Finegold, Benjamin (2490)Stoyanov, Zlatin (2352) – Rezzuti, Vincenzo (2427)Leonov, Mikhail A (2446) – Krasnov, Yury (2313)Heroes of this opening Ninov, Nikolai · Saglione, Eduardo · Castaneda, Georgui · Tahirov, Farhad
- Family
- Italian Game
- Category
- Open
- First move
- 1.e4
- ECO
- C57
- Line
- 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 Bc5 5. Nxf7
SharpAggressiveClassical
★ Read the guide: Italian GameExplore all 184 Italian Game lines →Keep exploring
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From the archives
The Italian Game is in the Göttingen manuscript and Polerio's notebooks — chess players have been putting the bishop on c4 for more than four centuries. It fell out of top-level fashion for decades, then returned as a main weapon of Carlsen and Caruana, proving the oldest plans still bite.
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