A Refutation to the Anti Fried Liver

With the help of @Poweranony (who thought of the original idea), I present to you: A refutation of the Anti-Fried Liver. It is called the Anti Fried Liver: Improved Goring Gambit. It is like the Goring Gambit in the Scotch game, but Black basically gives you an extra move. Unlike most gambits, Stockfish thinks that White is much better.

If black accepts the gambit, there are two main lines. The original variation, created by @Poweranony, goes like this:

It solves the issue of your king safety, which is a problem in the normal Goring gambit. The issue being solved results in this position being very good for white.

However, I feel like there is a stronger way to play this. I call it the Water Variation, because of a post in a make-your-own-openings thread that had the same Qb3 move, just in a slightly different opening. This is the Water Variation:

It ignores your king safety, as you have many threats, such as checking their king and forcing it to move, then taking their free g8 knight (2 attackers 1 defender). It also partially defends your king, as the queen blocks the bishop check, and there are no pins of the queen to the king as the bishop is undefended.

I would like to hear from everyone who sees this post on some variations against both the original line and the Water Variation, such as countergambits, defenses, and more. I see h6 a lot when I play the Italian, and this works very well against it. I would like to learn more, and show everyone else a new weapon when playing the Italian.

It looks like a really strong way to punish the Anti Fried Liver considering that you’re 650 and @Poweranomy is 1450. Make sure to research what to do against 4… exd4 5. c3 d5, as that’s the usual refutation to these types of gambits.

After d5 you can take, as your bishop on c4 defends your pawn. After the most common move of Na5, after Qa4+ c6 dxc6 Nxc6 Nxd4, you are up a pawn and have a better position. You are also threatening Nxc6 Nxc6 Qxc6+, winning another pawn, and after Bd7 preventing that, play Nxc6 Bxc6 Bb5, threatening the same thing again. Stockfish thinks white is much, much better, and white is also much better from a human perspective. If bxc6 instead of Bxc6 to prevent Bb5, play Qb3 and threaten things on f7, like in the Water variation.

Alright cool. Hey man have fun crushing anyone who plays the Anti Fried Liver.

@Ethan_Brollier I just wanted to share this because a lot of people hate the fried liver so much they play h6 to completely prevent it, but it’s a bad move.

Yeah I agree. I think playing essentially a Danish/Goring Gambit is a really good way to deal with it, Black looks dead lost so quickly that it’s almost comical.

I will post some lines to if someone looks for this, have an easy attacking game against the anti- fried liver.
A good way to attack in the fully accepted line if you get it is like this:

Now, punishing some mistakes:

If black plays 8. nh7
Now, The water variation is also very good . if black can't even take on b2 because there is a threat of playing bxf7+, so the only reasonable way of black of handling this is by playing either Qe7 or Qf6.
Qe7 lines:

Qf6 line kinda goes like this

Black will not always play the exact moves in these lines, but the ideas in the improved goring gambit/water variation generally are:
- Avoid the queen trades (Except for the line in Qe7, because trading queens is bad in that position for black)
- Create attacking possibilities and get aggressive mostly with your knights, specially in the water variation.
- Take the rooks to the open files or the e-file (since the black's king is exposed) to create more attacking possibilities
Always try to think: Why is a move considered the top engine move? When you analyze positions. You will understand more the position and the reasoning behind the move.
I hope this helps

After c3, black's best move is actually considered to be nf6. this however can give white a version of the italian scotch gambit were white has already played c3.

black isn't as dead lost as in the other positions where black accepts the gambit, but white gets a pretty decent position. 
The anti-fried liver is just bad. if you want to avoid the fried liver just play the hungarian defense, it's definitely more solid than h6

You can almost do the same thing against the Hungarian but black has 5... Na5

3...h6 is utter trash.

Black should never allow the Fried Liver in the first place, and just go into the normal two knights.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5?! d5 5.exd5 Na5! With complete equality. Allowing the Fried Liver with 5...Nxd5? 6.Nxf7 is just utterly stupid on Black's part. Play 5...Na5 and make White wish he had played 4.d3 or 4.d4.

OP is mentioning this as an option from White’s perspective against 3… h6. He’s actually agreeing with you that it’s utter trash and here he offers sample lines for easy ways for beginners to take advantage.

Also Ng5 is not an inaccuracy, It's the top computer move

*3rd top computer move (Stockfish 15.1 NNUE depth 40)

Gotta say, this is wonderful for a 600. Making up openings and gambits with powerful, effective lines can get tricky sometimes.

THERE IS NO REFUTING THE FRIED LIVER

It is not refuting the fried liver, it is refuting a bad attempt at a defense against the fried liver.