Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Knight Attack: what should White play?

In the Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Knight Attack, White's overwhelmingly preferred and objectively best continuation is exd5. This central capture occurs in 94.1% of recorded games (390K recorded), securing an engine evaluation of +0.84 and a 60.0% scoring rate for White. Resolving the central tension with the pawn maintains the pressure against Black's position while preserving White's minor pieces.

Strategic Logic of exd5

Choosing exd5 breaks Black's central pawn structure and opens lines of attack while defending the light-squared bishop indirectly. In an illustrative engine continuation, play runs through exd5 b5 dxc6 bxc4 dxc4 Qxd1+, where central pawns are traded down into an altered queenless middlegame. Rather than retreating or conceding piece activity, the capture liquidates the d5 outpost to White's advantage.

Inferior Bishop Alternatives

Other options fail to retain an advantage and immediately hand the initiative to Black. The retreat Bb3 has been tried in 1.4% of games (5.9K recorded) with an evaluation of -0.45, typically followed by Bb3 Nd4 Ba4+ c6 c3 Ne6. Similarly, Bxd5 yields an evaluation of -1.03 across 12K recorded games, leading into Bxd5 Nxd5 exd5 Qxd5 O-O Be7, while the pin attempt Bb5 scores 47.2% across 2.5K games and evaluates at -1.11 after Bb5 h6 Nf3 dxe4 Nxe5 Qd5.

The Premature Sacrifice

The speculative sacrifice Nxf7 appears in 0.9% of games (3.8K recorded). While it scores 54.7% across the recorded games, the engine rates it severely at -3.44 due to Nxf7 Kxf7 exd5 Na5 Nc3 Nxc4. Without adequate preparation, investing a full piece on f7 leaves White with insufficient compensation against accurate defense.