Tree path 6 levels King's Pawn Game › King's Knight Opening › Normal Variation › Italian Game › Two Knights Defense › Knight Attack
- Chess Codex
- King's Pawn Game C20
- King's Knight Opening C40
- Normal Variation C44
- Italian Game C50
- Two Knights Defense C55
- Knight Attack C57 you are here
Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Knight Attack
Overview
Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Knight Attack is a variation within the Open Games family, indexed as ECO C57.
The Open Games group covers open games — classical 1.e4 e5 openings where both sides contest the centre directly with pawns.
The line arises from 7 plies — specifically the moves 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5.
It is a variation of Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, which itself descends from the root opening King's Pawn Game.
It branches into 3 notable variations — Normal Variation, Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Ponziani-Steinitz Gambit, Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Traxler Counterattack.
Counted recursively, this branch covers 30 sub-variations at all depths.
Step through the moves on the interactive board below, review the live Lichess statistics, or play this position against Stockfish at one of six difficulty levels.
- ECO code
- C57
- Group
- Open Games (C)
- Plies
- 7
- Direct variations
- 3
- Total in subtree
- 30
This overview is generated automatically from the opening's metadata. Know this line well? Write a description — submissions are reviewed before publishing.
Statistics from Lichess
10,100,916 games · White 50.3% / Draw 3.6% / Black 46.1%
| Moves | Games | W / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| d5 | 8,149,366 | |
| Bc5 | 1,319,445 | |
| Nxe4 | 449,082 | |
| Qe7 | 47,159 | |
| d6 | 29,612 | |
| Na5 | 23,073 | |
| Be7 | 22,494 | |
| h6 | 20,189 |
Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 01:40:37
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Variations (3)
Show all 30 sub-variations (full subtree)
- C57 Normal Variation 8-ply
- C57 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Ponziani-Steinitz Gambit 8-ply
- C57 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Traxler Counterattack 8-ply
- C57 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Fried Liver Attack 11-ply
- C57 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Fritz Variation 10-ply
- C57 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Kloss Gambit 10-ply
- C57 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Lolli Attack 11-ply
- C58 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Polerio Defense 10-ply
- C57 Bishop Sacrifice Line 9-ply
- C57 Knight Sacrifice Line 9-ply
- C57 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Ulvestad Variation 10-ply
- C57 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Fegatello Attack, Leonhardt Variation 22-ply
- C57 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Fritz, Gruber Variation 15-ply
- C57 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Pincus Variation 12-ply
- C58 Bishop Check Line 11-ply
- C58 Kieseritzky Variation 11-ply
- C57 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Traxler Counterattack, King March Line 13-ply
- C57 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Traxler Variation, Trencianske-Teplice Gambit 11-ply
- C57 Kurkin Gambit 13-ply
- C58 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense 15-ply
- C58 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Maróczy Variation 18-ply
- C58 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Polerio Defense, Bogoljubow Variation 15-ply
- C58 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Polerio Defense, Yankovich Variation 19-ply
- C58 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Blackburne Variation 16-ply
- C58 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Colman Variation 16-ply
- C58 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Paoli Variation 17-ply
- C59 Polerio Defense, Suhle Defense 16-ply
- C59 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Knorre Variation 23-ply
- C59 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Polerio Defense, Göring Variation 20-ply
- C59 Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Steinitz Variation 17-ply