Best Italian Game Courses Under 1500

Under 1500, you can learn the Italian Game from free material and your own games; a paid course is a convenience, not a requirement. If you want one, choose by what you will play after 3.Bc4: Andrew Martin's "Evans & Friends" on ChessBase is the best-documented full package and says it is "best suited to players rated up to 1800" (the seller's wording), but its only answer to 3...Bc5 is the Evans Gambit, while Bahne Fuhrmann's Italian Four Knights is a short, cheap start at 1h 45m and €24.90 (as of 8 November 2026) that lists nothing for Black's other third moves.

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Test depth: Public information only. Nobody at ChessCourseFinder has taken these courses. This page is based on published documentation, pricing and reports read on 8 November 2026. How we review explains the limits.

How we picked

The question for this page is "what is documented well enough to judge for someone under 1500". Our criteria: a known price and running time, a list of lines covered, and any level wording from the seller. Research found 23 distinct paid Italian Game courses, 12 read on the seller's page; 3 of the 23 are ChessBase "60 Minutes" micro-courses, and several are for Black against the Italian. Counts are lower bounds.

No seller states a level in a way we can compare. The three ChessBase pages we read use broad labels ("Any"; "Beginner, Advanced, Tournament player"; "Advanced, Tournament player, Professional"), and only the Martin page names an upper bound. A search listing for the Udemy course says beginners rated 0-1500, with no rating system named. A Chessable course page refused our request on 8 November 2026 and we stopped there, so those rows stay at search-listing level. "Under 1500" here means "plausibly suitable", not "tested at that level".

Do you need a course at your level?

No, not to start. Coaches commonly advise that at this level general ideas matter more than memorised lines: develop the knight and bishop, castle, build the centre with c3 and d4 or a slow d3, and know what to do when Black plays ...d5. This is received coaching wisdom, not a seller claim or a measured result.

A course helps if you want an organised answer to Black's second and third moves and the common traps. It is probably the wrong first purchase if your games are mostly decided by hanging pieces.

The decision a course cannot make for you

Under 1500, buying well comes down to two questions: what will you play against 3...Bc5, and what will you play against 3...Nf6? Of the courses we could read, only Bologan's, whose level label sits above this band, answers both quietly, so settle these first. The cautions in the table are coaching opinion.

Coaches disagree about the quiet route. The preference above for 4.d3 as the lower-memorisation choice is common advice, but Exeter Chess Club's junior booklet, in an edition dated April 1996, tells young players to avoid the Giuoco Pianissimo because the game often ends up blocked and hard to get going, and offers 4.c3 and the Evans instead. Both are opinions. If you like open games, the booklet's objection may matter more to you than the memory saving.

Move orders and detours that change what you need

Several of these decide whether a course is complete for you, and they are the part a chapter list shows quickly.

• Black may never allow the Italian. Our Italian Game Mastery review records Lichess's figures for 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3, read on 8 November 2026 at default filters: 2...Nc6 in 64% of games, the Philidor (2...d6) in 15%, the Petrov (2...Nf6) in 12%. Among the courses we opened, only Martin's Vol. 2 has contents for the Petroff, and its description names the Philidor too (the contents show only a "systems with early d6" chapter).
• Third-move sidelines. 3...Be7 (the Hungarian Defence), 3...d6 and 3...g6 come up as sidesteps. Bologan's contents list all three; Martin's contents show Be7 only as 4...Be7 inside the Two Knights.
• The Blackburne Shilling trap. After 3...Nd4, the grab 4.Nxe5? runs into 4...Qg5 with a strong attack. None of the contents lists we read has a section for 3...Nd4, so you would learn it elsewhere.
• Fuhrmann's move order. His contents begin 3...Bc5 4.d3 Nf6 5.Nc3. Against 3...Nf6, playing 4.d3 can transpose if Black follows with 4...Bc5, but no chapter is listed for Black keeping the bishop home with 4...Be7 or breaking with 4...d5.
• Do not reverse the knight moves casually. With 3...Nf6 4.Nc3 (or 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bc4), Black has 4...Nxe4, because 5.Nxe4 d5 forks bishop and knight and wins the piece back with an easy game. Playing d3 first takes that trick away.
• Close relatives. The Bishop's Opening (2.Bc4) and the Scotch Gambit (3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4) can reach Italian positions by other routes. If you would like the centre opened at once, see the Scotch Game courses.
• Everything outside 1...e5. An Italian course stops at 1...e5. You still need something against the Sicilian, French, Caro-Kann and other first moves. The beginner repertoire page covers that.

Theory load

Low if you choose the slow route; moderate to high if you choose the Evans Gambit (4.b4) or meet the Two Knights Defence (3...Nf6) with 4.Ng5, where the sharp positions reward knowing exact moves. Martin's page says of the Evans that "the tactics aren't forced or memorized", yet its Vol. 1 contents list more than 30 named games and sub-lines across Black's fifth and sixth moves, so treat that as a seller's framing. A sharp gambit you half know may cost more games than it wins at this level (our opinion).

Coverage matrix

"Listed" means the page names the line. "Not in contents" means the page shows a chapter list and the line is not on it. "Not stated" means we saw no chapter detail, which is not evidence that the line is absent.

Best-documented courses

Prices as shown on 8 November 2026. Cost per hour is our calculation from the listed price and listed hours.

ChessBase also lists three 60-minute micro-courses on Italian ideas at €9.90, including "An Attacking Concept in the Giuoco Piano" by Robert Ris; they are short by design. As shown in search listings on 8 November 2026, TheChessWorld sells an "Italian Game" course credited to Modern Chess Camp; we did not open that site, so no price or contents are confirmed here.

Which one fits under 1500

These are conditional suggestions from the listed contents, not results.

• You want the simplest start. Buy nothing yet. Play 3...Bc5 4.d3 or 4.c3 from free material, and read the Lichess study tools page.
• You like attacking and accept being a pawn down. Martin's bundle is the best match. GM Noel Studer, who sells courses, advises that a first opening course be at most 10 hours, and the bundle's listed 10 hours sits at that limit.
• You want the detours covered but not the gambit. Martin's Vol. 2 alone (€34.90) lists the Two Knights (with 4.d3 lines inside its early-d6 systems chapter), the Petroff and second-move gambits. You would still need your own plan against 3...Bc5, which free study can supply.
• You want something short and quiet. Fuhrmann's course is the cheapest page-read course here apart from the 60-minute micro-courses, but it is one system. The g4 and g5 plans its page describes involve pushing pawns in front of your own king, which is not simple at this level (our opinion), and "without risk" is the seller's phrase.
• You already play d3 lines and want more depth. Bologan's course is about 62% on 3...Bc5 (3h 44m of the 6h 4m in its chapter timings) and 26% on 3...Nf6 4.d3, with little else. Its level label and move depth point above this band.

A note on the Udemy listing

We could not open the Udemy page for "Italian Game Mastery": Udemy refuses automated requests and we did not work around that. As shown in search listings on 8 November 2026, it is about 26 hours by Tryfon Gavriel for beginners rated 0-1500, at conflicting prices. Our Udemy Italian Game review sets out those conflicts and what to confirm first, and our list of free Udemy chess courses may help.

Who should skip a course for the Italian

Skip it if you are below roughly 1000 and still losing pieces to one-move tactics, or if you already play a system you like; the 1000 to 1500 rating band guide covers what to work on instead. For a different 1.e4 e5 choice with less to learn, compare the Scotch page above, or see low-theory repertoire courses.

What free study covers

Free material covers the early moves and the main plans. The Lichess opening explorer and public studies show what is played in your own rating range, and the Exeter booklet works through ideas and traps before variations. What you give up is a single teacher, a set order and a ready-made drill file. Before paying for anything, play ten games with your chosen line and note where you first felt lost: that is the chapter to check for on a course page.

What the seller's pages do not tell you

• None of the page-read courses says whether it suits a 900 or a 1400 player. Martin's "up to 1800" is the closest, and it is the seller's wording. It sits in the Vol. 2 section of the page.
• Martin's page gives one running time for the whole 10-hour bundle, and "approx. 4-8 hrs" in the delivery text, so you cannot tell how much is the Italian. Vol. 1 is entirely the Evans.
• Martin's contents show notation slips, such as "5.Bc5" where Black's 5...Bc5 is meant. The declined section lists 4...Bd6 lines, while the more common Evans Declined move is 4...Bb6. Check the free sample if the declined line matters to you.
• Fuhrmann's page claims "a complete repertoire against 1...e5 2.Nf3 Nc6", but the theory chapters listed all start from 3...Bc5 4.d3 Nf6 5.Nc3.
• Fuhrmann's page lists 1h 45m, but its delivery section separately says "approx. 4-8 hrs". The two conflict; our per-hour figure uses 1h 45m, and at 4 hours it would be about €6.23 per hour.
• Bologan's page says it covers "all answers by Black against 3.Bc4", yet its chapter list has nothing on 3...Nd4 or 4.Ng5, and no 4.c3 chapter.
• Both Chessable courses show prices for the trainer; the video edition costs $35 to $100 more in the listings.
• Most listings are for White; Marin's and Wesley So's ChessBase courses are for Black against the Italian.