Hi there Hivers!

As you saw in the title I'm a little (too) excited with the tournaments that are doing in HiveChess so I wanted to study a bit several variations that in the times when I played professionally worked quite well, the openings are an especially theoretical part of chess because most of the first moves are always studied to the smallest detail, what you have to do is memorize moves and know why each move is made, knowing the principles of the opening is not bad either.

The opening that I bring you today is one that I would consider basic, is the opening that every novice player knows and that with a little patience and perseverance can play comfortably, The Italian opening gets a solid position from the beginning by applying all the principles of chess, in this post I would like to explain a little the ideas and plans of this opening as well as my vision and approach to these open positions.

Our first move is

e4, e5

It is a typical start in chess, we want to mobilize our minor pieces (knights and bishops) as efficiently and quickly as possible while applying one of the most important principles of the game, always dominate the center.

Nf3

A crucial development of our kingside knight to impose from the beginning a move towards the opponent's pawn, and we start to develop our pieces to apply another critical concept in chess: Castling.

In these positions, the most common is that Black also plays his knight on the opposite side, protecting the pawn. 2.. Nc6

Bc4

With the bishop move here we already enter a thematic scheme of the Italian opening, the objective of our bishop is first to be developed in order to castle and also to put pressure on the f7 point for a deadly attack on the king.

The main variation of the Italian continues with black playing 3.... Bc5 but it can also be followed by many more detailed variations such as 3.... Nf6 or variations where there are many sacrifices and white's primary objective is to dominate the center.

This is the main outline of the opening, but I will go on to explain one of my favorite gambits in this type of position: The Evans Gambit

The Evans Gambit

Once black plays 3. Bc5 we have a small variation that can catch more than one player by surprise and forces the opponent to play forced moves in order to equalize the position, we continue with the move....

b4!?

To players who are just starting will seem crazy to sacrifice a pawn as abruptly as in this move, but here White's plan is a very effective and above all logical one... Remember when I told you that dominating the center is one of the main objectives to be sought in chess? well here White proposes just that: sacrifice a pawn but hasten the development and dominate the center of the board.

The best known variant for the black pieces is to capture the pawn with 4.... Bxb4 which indicates that the gambit has been accepted and we can continue with the following moves.

c3

The white pieces start their plan of dominance in the center with this move to attack the bishop and at the same time hold a second advance with d4, plus they also have several times to continue developing their pieces by tacitly attacking the black pieces.

5...Bc5? 6.d4

We complete the maneuver by having a very powerful moving pawn center, of course black will attack this center as soon as he has a chance and that is why timing is crucial especially in this variation, we must occupy black with all the threats we can and play precise.

This post has been a little different from everything I'm used to, but I was not going to pass up the chance to analyze and put content concerning this magnificent game-science, many thanks to those who inspired this post, to all the organizers of HiveChess which is disputed every Friday, thanks to @stayoutoftherz for the invitation to these tournaments.

Greetings to all!