Italian Game
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 · you play white
2 chapters, 8 moves deep, get you to 93% of what you will actually meet. The other 2 cover the last 5%.
Course progress
0 of 116 decisions
0 still learning · 116 not asked yet
2 more chapters are below the depth for your level, together 5% of what you meet.
Drill this opening
Any chapter or study, asked cold — whether or not you owe it. Nothing here is unlocked by anything else.
At your level
Level
Improving
Depth
16 plies of this opening
Chapters
2
Decisions
116
0/116
How this goes wrong at your level
Counted from 4,500,000 games by players in your band. These are moves that get played often and then lose — no engine was asked for an opinion.
What you are most likely to fall for
— the 5 costliest of 19
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 f5
exf5 — played 33% of the time here.
You score 38% after it, against 52% for everything else played from this position, over 3,448 games.
Instead:
d4
55%
d3
54%
Bxg8
49%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4
Nxe5 — played 19% of the time here.
You score 25% after it, against 54% for everything else played from this position, over 1,477 games.
Instead:
d3
56%
Bxf7+
55%
O-O
55%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nd4 6.d6 Qxd6
Nxf7 — played 72% of the time here.
You score 18% after it, against 56% for everything else played from this position, over 234 games.
Instead:
Bxf7+
57%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4 4.Nxe5 Qg5
Nxf7 — played 24% of the time here.
You score 7% after it, against 30% for everything else played from this position, over 349 games.
Instead:
O-O
43%
Ng4
35%
Bxf7+
31%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nd4
d6 — played 22% of the time here.
You score 34% after it, against 52% for everything else played from this position, over 393 games.
Instead:
Nc3
66%
O-O
54%
c3
53%
What your opponents fall for
— the 5 costliest of 20
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5
Nxd5 — played 26% of the time here.
They score 38% after it, against 51% for everything else played from this position, over 3,491 games.
They should play:
b5
56%
Nd4
52%
Na5
51%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d4 exd4 5.c3
dxc3 — played 52% of the time here.
They score 36% after it, against 47% for everything else played from this position, over 2,736 games.
They should play:
d3
53%
d6
48%
Qf6
48%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 h6 5.d4 exd4 6.O-O
dxc3 — played 65% of the time here.
They score 34% after it, against 46% for everything else played from this position, over 886 games.
They should play:
d3
67%
d6
48%
Nge7
44%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nxd5 6.Nxf7 Kxf7 7.Qf3+
Ke8 — played 21% of the time here.
They score 18% after it, against 40% for everything else played from this position, over 460 games.
They should play:
Ke6
43%
Qf6
40%
Ke7
26%
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.e5
Qe7 — played 12% of the time here.
They score 34% after it, against 50% for everything else played from this position, over 501 games.
They should play:
d5
57%
Ne4
47%
Ng4
42%
Found by testing 94,688 decisions in your band’s games and keeping only those where the drop in score is more than four standard errors below the alternatives. About 3.17 of these would be expected by chance alone.
Your moves are chosen by the engine and checked against 3,439,091 games (Lichess Elite (2500+ vs 2300+), 2024-12 → 2025-11); their replies are what people actually play. Evaluations from Lichess Stockfish evaluations (database.lichess.org) (CC0 1.0 Universal), covering 86% of this course.