Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...e5/2. Nf3/2...Nc6/3. Bc4/3...Nf6/4. Ng5/4...Nd5/5. d4

Two Knights Defence
a b c d e f g h 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 a b c d e f g h
Position in Forsyth-Edwards Notation (FEN) r1bqkb1r/pppp1ppp/2n5/3np1N1/2BPP3/8/PPP2PPP/RNBQK2R b
Moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 Nd5 5. d4
ECO code: C57-C59
Parent: Italian Game

Two Knights Defence

5. d4

White's best move 5. d4 refrains from capturing the Black knight for one turn, and instead defends their own knight with the dark-squared bishop. Black also finds themselves unable to move away their undefended knight because of its pin to the f-pawn.

The move 6. exd5 will threaten the other Black knight as well so the most Black can do is at least gain one knight in compensation with 5...h6 or sacrifice their knight for a pawn with 5...Nxd4.

Theory table

For explanation of theory tables, see theory table and for notation, see algebraic notation.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 Nd5 5. d4

		5	6	7
	1	d4 h6	exd5 hxg5	dxc6 ...
	2	d4 Nxd4	Bxd5 Ne6

References

• Kasparov, Garry, & Keene, Raymond 1989 Batsford chess openings 2. ISBN 0-8050-3409-9.

• Nunn's Chess Openings. 1999. John Nunn (Editor), Graham Burgess, John Emms, Joe Gallagher. ISBN 1-8574-4221-0.