Original Lines against the Italian

[Roger de Coverly]

In today's column (Oct 24th 2025), Leonard draws our attention to a game from the US Championship.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/ ... llegations

In round seven, against his then co-leader Niemann, Caruana produced the game of the tournament, a sensational display of original strategy. After the sequence 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 d6 4 c3 f5!? 5 d3 Qf6! White should play 6 exf5! or 6 Ng5 keeping the position open and his forces mobile. After 6 0-0? f4! it is already strategically difficult as Black’s Qf6 is active.

That looks parallel to an idea that someone has done youtube videos on. This runs 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 f5. Now 4. exf5 allows 4. .. e4 and Black is somewhat better. Despite the advocacy of its presenter, both 4. d4 (reverse Vienna) and 4. d3 (reverse Kings Gambit declined) seem storng. The extra tempo does help with the tactics, particularly those based around Ng5 because of the Bishop already on c4.

If you look at the Caruana idea with colours reversed, say by starting 1. e4 e5 2. f4 Bc5 3. Nc3 d6 4. d3 Nf6 5. Qf3, you run into the problem that Black won't obligingly play 5. .. c6, but .. Nc6 instead.

I could suppose that Mestel's 1970s line in the Philidor of 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 f5 is also related.

[Matt Mackenzie]

A lot of these lines can be transposed into by the Latvian Gambit, but hardly anyone seems to play that anymore.

[Nick Ivell]

I always preferred Bc4 on move 2.

[Tim Spanton]

I always preferred Bc4 on move 2.

That doesn't stop 2...f5!?

[Nick Ivell]

Never faced it. You have to be brave not to worry about BxN.

[Tim Spanton]

Presumably Black counts on the bishop-pair and queenside cadtling to give a game with counterchances

[Matt Mackenzie]

Never faced it. You have to be brave not to worry about BxN.

I don't think that is actually anything special for White, in a lot of these lines a quick d4 seems to be the way to go.

[Tim Spanton]

Never faced it. You have to be brave not to worry about BxN.

I don't think that is actually anything special for White, in a lot of these lines a quick d4 seems to be the way to go.

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 f5!? 3.d4 is a Reversed Falkbeer with White having the extra move Bc4.

[NickFaulks]

You have to be brave not to worry about BxN.

Nah, a King's Gambit player dreams about lines like that.

[Joey Stewart]

I sometimes listen to caruanas podcast on YouTube and he has mentioned a few times how with modern engines and processing power he's finding there is actually way more depth to openings then we ever realised, after years of authors telling us that lines are "unplayable" or bad for one colour it turns out on greater analysis that you have far more choices then we realised.

It's a really good one to listen to, he's not one of these childlike broadcasters just interested in appealing to the lowest common denominator but a really intelligent and insightful commentator who gives us a rarely seen view into the preparations and inner workings of chess at the highest level.

[Nick Ivell]

I am not remotely saying I would have played BxN; just trying to explain why the possibility never arose, in more than 100 serious games.

I started playing 2. Bc4 on the back of Tim Harding's wonderful little book. Previously I had played the Spanish, but got fed up with all the theory.

In case anyone in wondering about my use of descriptive, well, I did move to algebraic in 1976; but I have always found descriptive better for captures!