There’s no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery.

The Alpine Chicken: as fowl an opening as you will see. The 21st most popular in the game, it is often tactically equivalent to laying an egg, but the value of it as a delaying tactic is powerful and sees it used fairly often in high level play.

Theoretical attacks against Austria or France are tactically solid enough against new players but so well worn that better players will see them coming. But that won’t stop even the best from being slowed down to Italy’s glacial speed, and with little diplomatic leverage lost in the process.

If there’s a weakness then it is that Italy’s fleet finishes in Tunis and any attack against Turkey is going to be very slow indeed. An annoyed France may take years to arrive in Force, but that is of no benefit if Italy has cost themselves the same amount of time in their attack against the Turk.

The fact that the opening is Italy’s third most popular may be down to the simple question of “Who wouldn’t want to open with an Alpine Chicken?” or it may just be that this is one of the best openings Italy has available to it and should form part of every strong player’s repertoire.