The Italian Game as a club player: what I actually need to know
I have played 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 for three years and have slowly realised that most of what I memorised was useless at club level, while the things that actually decided my games were simple ideas I had never written down. So here is the list, for my own future reference, of what I actually need to know in the Italian as a player somewhere around 1650.
First, the quiet set-up with d3 and c3 is the one to play. The sharp lines with an early d4 and a knight sacrifice win games against people who do not know them and lose games against people who do, and I cannot tell which is which from across the board. With d3 I get the same middlegame every time: bishop on c4 or retreated to b3, knight to d2 and then f1 and g3, castle, h3 to stop a bishop pin, and then decide whether to play d4 or play on the kingside.
Second, the one move order detail that matters: play h3 before Black can play Bg4 pinning my knight, but not so early that it wastes a tempo. In practice this means h3 right after Black has played d6 and before his bishop has developed. I have lost at least two games to that pin, where Black followed with Nd4 and my kingside fell apart.
Third, Black’s main annoying idea is the early Na5 to kick my bishop from c4. The answer is Bb3 and then usually Nxb3, axb3, and I end up with doubled b-pawns and an open a-file. That structure is fine for me and I used to think it was bad. Having a plan for it, rook to the a-file and pressure on a7, has turned a position I dreaded into one I enjoy.
Fourth, the move d4 is a decision, not a reflex. If I play it when my pieces are not coordinated, Black plays exd4 and I have an isolated pawn or a worse version of the open game I was trying to avoid. The right time is when the knight is on g3, the rook is on e1 and Black has not yet played d5. That is it. Four ideas, none of which goes beyond move 12, and between them they cover almost every Italian I have played in a year. I have cut the opening file down to a single page.