Three Knights Opening

Infobox chess opening
openingname = PAGENAME

Chess diagram|=


=
rd| |bd|qd|kd|bd|nd|rd|=
pd|pd|pd|pd| |pd|pd|pd|=
| |nd| | | | | |=
| | | |pd| | | |=
| | | |pl| | | |=
| |nl| | |nl| | |=
pl|pl|pl|pl| |pl|pl|pl|=
rl| |bl|ql|kl|bl| |rl|=|
moves=1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3
ECO=C46
birth=
nameorigin =
parentopening = Open Game
AKA=
chessgid=24050&move=3.5&moves=e4.e5.Nf3.Nc6.Nc3

The Three Knights Opening is a chess opening that begins with the moves:: : :In the Three Knights Opening, Black chooses to break symmetry in order to avoid the often drawish Four Knights Game that would result from 3...Nf6. After tries such as 3...d6 or 3...Be7, White can play 4.d4 leaving Black with a cramped position resembling Philidor's Defense. If Black plays 3...Bc5 instead, White can use a fork to eliminate Black's king pawn 3...Bc5 4.Nxe5 Nxe5 5.d4 Bd6 6.dxe5 Bxe5. Tournament games have shown that this line seems to favor White, so Black usually plays 3...Bb4 or 3...g6. The game will then typically continue 3...Bb4 4.Nd5 or 3...g6 4.d4 exd4.

There is also the Winawer Defense or Gothic Defense: 3... f5!?. 4. Bb5 transposes into the Schliemann variation of the Ruy Lopez. Note White probably should not play 4. exf5 because of 4... d5.

References

*cite book | author=Raymond Keene, Gary Kasparov | year=1989, 1994 | title=Batsford Chess Openings 2 | publisher=B.T. Batsford Ltd | isbn=0-8050-3409-9