For me the italian opening is simple and very active, other openings lead to dull positions with pieces being too far from the enemy territory, even najdorf variation that is considered too complicated looks too passive for me.
There are some opening that are considered active but still they are too slow, many moves should be made until you get activity and many bad things might happen while you are trying to get there.
Isn't italian opening better than going for quiet long manuvers that doesn't threaten anything serious?
@GentjanLici #1
Several top GMs, recently, do play the Italian opening : Anand, Giri and others.
Here's 2 games :
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1818271http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1649097(And this fabulous game resembles the Italian opening structure :
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1815600 )
Also, years ago Garry Kasparov "revived" the Evans Gambit, which then became again popular for a while.
The Ruy Lopez can give white a long lasting plus in some lines (Not in the Marshall gambit), while this is not always the case with the Italian opening.
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@achja yes they play only once in 5 years, even when they play it it resembles more the quiet spanish than the dynamic italian. I liked the game of carlsen, at least he improved his pieces in optimal position, the other games were dull, nothing was going on there, they were relying on long term little pluses to pressure their opponents to go crazy with their play.
@noob2chess such games should be rare because when I open the profile of players on
chessgames.com there is no italian opening shown with 150 games like other openings.
I agree you seldom see Italian opening and very often Ruy Lopez in master games. I think the reason is one has found defenses that don't give black any problem. The Moeller Attack 4. c3 is nowadays considered incorrect I think. 4. d3 is maybe not offering black any problems. Ruy Lopez is maybe more dangerous for black in master level games.
Maybe, there are too many possible counter-attacks for Black and maybe there are other openings that will offer White a longer lasting advantage.
After all, why would White want to settle for advantages that are short lived and risk losing an important game, when White can play lines like the Spanish or Scotch openings that should have longer lasting advantages.
I compare openings to roads. Players pick the route they want to take. It's just like walking on a narrow rope, instead of using the sidewalk.
When playing for fun, I prefer using uncommon openings. I get more pleasure in calculating those scenic routes. For me the pleasure is in the adventure, not the end result.
Grandmasters do play the italian game all of the time what are you talking about.
Even most of the all time greats played the Italian game
