Giuoco Piano

Again, this is the start of the generation of Forums being posted off of Endgame And Opening And Chess books. Therefore, no more silly Forums .

As Always, Enjoy the forum. No puzzle or Puzzle/Challenge/Problem here. Just A simple Diagram, there are more Forums to come.

.........I'll stop here, your maybe bored of reading. Enjoy!!

Why are there three black bishops on the diagram?

I think that the Evans Gambit is interesting with 4. b4?! Bxb4 5. c3 with 6. d4 to follow. Its a sacrifice of a pawn for quick development and maintenance of a strong pawn structure I suppose.

One thing I've seen a few times from a Giuoco Piano game is white exchanging a Bishop and Knight for Pawn and Rook on f7.  Speaking strictly in material values it's an even exchange, but obviously depending on the rest of the board it could prove to be good or bad.  I've been on both sides of this exchange and have never seen it work out well yet.  Anyone have any thoughts on this theme?

white has three bishops too...=p

What I would do from the position in the diagram is 4.Nxe5 Nxe5 5.d4, I do this whenever possible 

When counting material, it's best to consider minor pieces (knights and bishops) as being worth 3.25 pawns, not just 3. And the queen is worth 3 minor pieces, so that makes it worth around 9.75 pawns. That's according to Dan Heisman's Novice Nook column at chesscafe.com. So a knight and bishop is slightly more material than rook and pawn, plus the fact that white is giving up the bishop pair. And this trade usually happens among low level players, who hang pawns constantly in the endgame, so it's almost not worth counting pawns when trading material at that level.

As for the opening overall, I play it from both sides. I usually go for the 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. e5 line as white, since most opponents are expecting the immediate 6. cxd4, so this surprises them. I've considered trying out the Evans Gambit, though.

As black, I respond to 4. c3 with Qe7. This unusual move surprises a lot of opponents, and it's a perfectly sound move, though probably not the theoretically best possible move. 

--Fromper 

I hate the Giuoco Piano! It is so boring, almost symetrical and without any possible powerful attacks for either side.

mvh Fredrik 

Man, boring? You must be joking:

Anderssens Evergreen game, one of the nicest achievements of romantic chess :-)

Technically it is not part of the Giuco Piano, though.

Instead, 4.b4 is  the Evans Gambit, which has blessed the chess world with many wonderful games, but may not be entirely correct by today's theory.

The position Hydrocannon has meant to post initially is presumably this:

This is nothing less than the starting position of the Italian Game. From here, play can continue along several subvariations which may differ quite largely in character:

1. 4.d3 is what I have learnt to call the Giuco Piano. The Italian term translates into something like the "calm game" or "soft game", and indeed the clash of forces is less violent than in many other open games. A typical example is the line many of us probably employed as their first opening at all: 4.d3 d6 5.Nc3 Nf6. Obviously this symmetrical structure doesn't seem very imaginative, but even from here on play can still become very entertaining. Still I'd agree the approach looks boring. Another issue is the plan of following 4.d3 with c2-c3 and Nbd2, aiming for a d3-d4 thrust in the right moment. This is the plan which can be seen most frequently in GM play these days - if they play the Italian at all
2. There is a line trying to achieve d2-d4 immediately: 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.cxd4 Bb4+ 7.Nc3 (7.Bd2 Bxd2+ 8.Nbxd2 d5 is a calmer option) 7...Nxe4 has been analysed by Greco as early as 1625, but it still keeps popping up now and then in tournament practice. It is far from boring.
3. The Evans Gambit 4.b4 has already been mentioned. It can be tremendous fun to play, but as I wrote above, the defence against this has been refined and a strong player doesn't have to fear it as Black.

Giuoco piano and italian game are the same    named after the itialian player Gioachino Greco who played it a lot. 

d3 is the giuoco pianissimo  or quietest game 

c3 is the main line of the giucoco piano or italian game.  

oh just google giuoco pianno.  I am not going to argue over definitions.

Both c3 and d3 are the giuocco piano or italian game

the d3 verison is the giuoco pianissimo version of the italian game or giucco piano.

Giuoco piano and itialian game are interchangeable games.

c3 is the main line.

d3 is the quieter line.  

Giuoco piano and Italian game are interchangeable games.

This is demonstrably untrue.   The Evans gambit is a variation of the italian game, not of the giuoco piano.  A quiet Evans gambit would just be silly!