Project: The Opening

Time to put the whole chapter together. You are going to play through the first three moves of the Italian Game, one of the oldest and friendliest openings in chess, reading the position after every single move the way a real player does. It starts, as most good things do, with 1. e4 e5: both sides plant a pawn in the centre and open lines for a bishop and the queen.

1. e4 e5. Both sides claim a centre square and open lines for bishop and queen.

2. Nf3. Read this move the way White does: it develops a knight toward the centre, and it attacks the pawn on e5, which right now has no defender at all. A developing move that also makes a threat is the best kind: your opponent must spend their turn answering you.

2. Nf3. The knight develops and attacks e5, which nothing defends yet.

2...Nc6. Black answers in kind: a knight comes out toward the centre and guards the attacked pawn, one move doing two jobs. Notice what Black did not do: no panicked pawn move, no queen sortie. Just a developing move that happens to solve the problem.

2...Nc6. Black develops a knight and guards the attacked pawn in the same move.

3. Bc4, and the opening has a name: the Italian Game, played for five hundred years. The bishop takes the long light diagonal and stares at f7, the square only Black's king defends. There is no mate threat here (no queen has joined in), just healthy, permanent pressure.

3. Bc4, the Italian Game. The bishop takes the long diagonal and eyes f7.

Stop and look at what White has after three moves: a pawn in the centre, a knight and a bishop on active squares, a clear path to castle O-O next move, and the queen safely at home. That is what a good opening position looks like, in any opening: centre, development, king safety, in that order. Play your next hundred games by that recipe and you will be ahead of most people who have played for years.