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Italian Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4)
How do Italian Game games actually end? Across 88,443 Lichess games that reached the position after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4, White won 50.6%, 4.1% were drawn and Black won 45.2%. Below: the main line move by move, the most played continuations (the favorite is 3...Nf6), the rating effect and the opening's history.
The main line, move by move
| Move | Position name | Games | White | Draws | Black |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.e4 | King's Pawn Game | 1,601,410 | 49.2% | 4.3% | 46.4% |
| 1...e5 | King's Pawn Game | 597,216 | 52.1% | 4.1% | 43.7% |
| 2.Nf3 | King's Knight Opening | 369,885 | 52.3% | 4.3% | 43.4% |
| 2...Nc6 | King's Knight Opening: Normal Variation | 233,946 | 50.9% | 4.4% | 44.7% |
| 3.Bc4 | Italian Game | 88,443 | 50.6% | 4.1% | 45.2% |
| 3...Nf6 | Italian Game: Two Knights Defense | 28,967 | 49.3% | 4.0% | 46.8% |
| 4.Ng5 | Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Knight Attack | 9,851 | 50.1% | 3.5% | 46.4% |
| 4...d5 | - | 8,153 | 50.3% | 3.7% | 46.1% |
The 5 most common continuations (for Black)
| Move | Variation | Games | White | Draws | Black |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3...Nf6 | Italian Game: Two Knights Defense | 28,967 | 49.3% | 4.0% | 46.8% |
| 3...Bc5 | - | 28,290 | 48.3% | 4.3% | 47.3% |
| 3...h6 | - | 13,539 | 56.7% | 4.2% | 39.1% |
| 3...Be7 | - | 5,679 | 47.8% | 4.3% | 47.9% |
| 3...d6 | - | 4,679 | 55.6% | 4.2% | 40.2% |
How rating changes the same position
| Rating band (average of the pair) | Games | White | Draws | Black |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1600-1799 | 59,521 | 51.4% | 3.7% | 44.8% |
| 2200-2499 | 624 | 46.0% | 6.7% | 47.3% |
The story of the opening
The Italian Game is one of the oldest openings with a written record: it appears in the Göttingen manuscript from the late 15th century and dominates the games of Gioachino Greco in the 17th. The classical name of the main line, Giuoco Piano, means quiet game in Italian, which is ironic for an opening that produced centuries of direct attacks against f7.
After a hundred years away from the elite, dismissed as exhausted by theory, the Italian returned to the top in the 2010s through the back door: the world's best, tired of running into the Berlin Defense of the Ruy Lopez, rediscovered in the modest Bc4 a way to keep pieces on the board and play maneuvering chess. Carlsen, Caruana and company turned the Giuoco Pianissimo, the most patient version of all, into one of the central battlegrounds of modern elite chess.
Compare it with every other opening in the opening statistics archive, or visit its neighbors: Ruy Lopez and Scandinavian Defense. Nerd aside: chess notation is a 64 square code, cousin to the ones living next door, like binary and Morse.
Source: the Lichess open game database (database.lichess.org, CC0 data), months 2014-06, 2015-01, 2016-01, snapshot of 2026-07-09: blitz, rapid and classical games with the players' average rating between 1600 and 2199, aggregated by move sequence. Variation names and ECO codes: lichess-org/chess-openings (CC0).
Last updated: · Methodology and sources