Is the Fried Liver +-?

     The Fried Liver in the Two Knights' Defense has a checkered past. While seemingly busted according to ECO, it now has been analyzed deeply by Jon Edwards and Dan Heisman in recent issues of Chess Life. Jon thought that White might have a slight endgame plus. Dan, on the other hand came up with a really nifty defensive resource for Black i.e. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nxd5 6.d4? Nxd4! & Dan has proven that White does not win a piece here; this, however, is trivial because White has a win in the main line of the Fried Liver.

    5.exd5 Nxd5 6.Nxf7! Kxf7 7.Qf3ch Ke6 (Believe it or not, when you see the coming game, relatively best for Black is to go into an endgame a pawn down with 7...Ke8 8.Qxd5 Qxd5 9.Bxd5 Nb4 10.Bb3 Bf5 11.d3 e4 12.a3 +/-

     7...Ke6 8.Nc3 Nb4 9.Bb3!! N? With this simple move White gains a tempo over 9.a3? (I define Bb3 as a developing move because the Bishop cannot access the b3 square from the starting position in under 3 moves; thus Ng5 is a developing move as I define time) and avoids the massive loss of material associated with 9.a3, and, at the same time threatens the devastating 10.a3

9...c6 (forced) 10.a3 Na6 (To show you how difficult this position is for Black just consider that, at first, Fritz preferred 10...Nxc2 just giving back the piece; this is preferable to what happens next.

11.Nxd5! cxd5 12.d4! exd4 (Fritz played this after several minutes of thought) 13.Bf4! (One hammer blow after another) Qa5ch 14.c3 Qb5 15.Qe4ch Kd7 16.Bxd5 Nc5 17.Qxd4 Ne6 18.Qd2 Ke8 19.O-O-O Be7 20.Rhe1 (The attack just plays itself) Qa6 21.Bxe6 Bxe6 22.Qe3 Rd8 23.Qxe6 Rxd1ch 24.Kxd1 Qxe6 25.Rxe6 Kf7 26.Re4

and now I resigned for Fritz because there is no compensation for the two pawns.

I would say the fried liver is + in my oppinion because black has to play so accurate and is more likely to make a mistake.

You said that after 

 

White does not win a piece. Can I see the analysis please? I'm curious

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I figured it out

Yeah but after 7.c3 now what?  The Lolli Attack is still stronger.

And in the Fried Liver, 12...e4 seems to be better.

Oops ignore that post, 13.Qxe4+!

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nxd5 6.Nxf7 Kxf7 7.Qf3+ Ke6 8.Nc3 Ncb4 9.Bb3 c6 10.a3 Na6 11.Nxd5 cxd5 12.d4 and now:

The recommended line for black is

12...Be7 13.0-0 Rf8 14.Qg3 Kf7 15.Qxe5 Kg8 16.Bxd5+ Kh8 17.Be4 Qe8 18.c3 black is under pressure and will have difficulty coordinating his pieces.  White has the advantage here, but black is still on the board.

I think 12...Be7 might be a better try for black.

Much analysis has been done on the fried liver, and some GMs have advocated (instead of 8...Nb4) 8...Ne7!?

How should the attack continue from here?

     Here is some analysis of the Lolli Attack courtesy of Chess Life---4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nxd5 6.d4 Nxd4!! (The Heisman Variation). In the critical variation, White, at best, has a slight plus in a very sharp position where the better player will win. The other key idea is that after 7.c3!? b5 is one possibility which according to Heisman, wins a piece but at too high a cost;  after 8.Bxd5 Qxd5 9.cxd4 Qxg2 10.Rf1 Bb4ch! 11.Nc3 f6 12.Qf3 Qxf3 13.Nxf3 Bg4 "with excellent compensation" (In the opinion of Fritz 10, =/+)

     It doesn't seem that 8...Ne7 is any stronger. What does Black do, for instance, after---9.d4 c6 10.dxe5 Kd7 11.Bg5 Kc7 12.Bxd5 cxd5 13.Nb5ch Kb6 14.Qd3 Kc6 15.c4 +-?

Please see post 6 Sloughter.

8...Ne7 is known to be dubious.  From the unorthodox newsletter which analysed the Fried Liver Attack:

After 8…Ne7 9.d4 (9.0-0!?)white should win with accurate play:

9…ed 10.Qe4+ Kf7 11.Nxd5 Be6 12.Qf4+ Kg8 13.Nf6+ gf 14.Bxe6+ 1-0 Knuiman,J.-Zwetsloot. Arnhem. 1998. 9…Qd6 10.0-0 Kd7 11.de Qxe5 12.Bxd5 Nxd5 13.Nxd5 and black made four more moves before resigning in Ramos,M.-Cubas,S. Guarapuava, Brazil. 1995. 9…g6 10.Bg5 c6 (10...Qd6 11.0-0-0 Bg7 12.Bxe7 Qxe7 13.Qxd5+ Kf6 14.de+ Qxe5 15.Qf7+ 1-0 Luber,R.-Lipecki,A. Bad Ragaz. 1992.) 11.0-0-0 Bg7 12.de Qf8 13.Nxd5 Qxf3 14.Nc7+! Kf5 15.gf Kxg5 16.Nxa8 Bx5 17.Rhe1 +- Schmidt,R. –Solace,R. Germany. 1993. 9…b6 10.Bg5 Bb7 11.0-0-0 c6 12.Rhe1 Kd6 13.Bxe7+ Qxe7 14.Rxe5 Qd8 15.Nxd5 cd 16.Bxd5 Kc7 17.Bxb7 1-0 Bentz,C.-Christ,M. Eisenberg. 1993. 9…b5 10.Nxb5 c6 11.Nc3 Qb6 12.de Bb7 13.Ne4 Qb4+ 14.Bb2 Qxc4 15.Qg4+ Kxe5 16.f4+ Kd4 17.c3+ Nxc3 18.Bxc3+ Kxe4 19.f5+ Kd5

20.0-0-0+ Kc5 21.b4+ Kb5 22.a4+ 1-0 Von der Lasa-Mayet. Berlin. 1839.

9…c6 this is the critical line in the "Fegatello de Polerio", and after 10.Bg5 (10.de, 10.0-0-0, 10.Re1, 10.Bf4, 10.Ne4 and 10.Qe4 has been played with success, but they are not as forcing as the text move), black can now choose from the following moves:

A) 10…Kd7 11.de Ke8 12.0-0-0 Be6 13.Nxd5 Bxd5 14.Rxd5! cd 15.Bb5+ wins

according to Cook.

B) 10…h6 11.Bxe7 Bxe7 12.0-0-0 Rf8 13.Qe4 Rxf2 14.de Bg5+ 15.Kb1 Rd2

(15…Kb1 Ke7 16.Bxd5 cd 17.Nxd5+ Kf8 18.h4 1-0 Akramov,E.-Vvvojvoda,M.

7PSRR. 1996.) 16.h4 Rxd1+ 17.Rxd1 Bxh4 18.Nxd5 cd 19.Rxd5 Qg5

20.Rd6+ Ke7 21.Rd5 1-0 Polerio-Domenico. Rome. Around 1600.

     Thanks for the research, but I knew without any serious analysis that Ne7 blocking in the Bishop has to be bad. After looking at the position with Fritz 10, it is clear that Black is getting hammered.

     Now for your improvement (Obviously better to make a developing move than a pawn move opening up the center for White's pieces---the silicon monster does have its drawbacks; when it crunches for several minutes my tendency is to "believe" it when clearly its positional understanding is limited (after all I crushed it at Game 120'40.)

5.exd5 Nxd5 6.Nxf7 Kxf7 7.Qf3ch Ke6 8.Nc3 Nb4 9.Bb3 c6 10.a3 Na6 11.Nxd5 cxd5 12.d4 Be7 13.O-O Rf8 14.Qe4 (This seems stronger than your Qg3) Kd7 15.Qxd5ch Kc7 16.Qxe5ch Qd6 17.Qxg7 Bd7 18.Be3 +/-

14...Kd7 makes very little sense in this situation.  You give up a pawn and block the coordination of the pieces.

Much better is 14...Qd6! and black still is on the board.

14.Qe4 Qd6! 15.Qxh7 Bf6 and black has the advantage.

A possible improvement in my original line was found by silicon.

14.Qg3 exd4! 15.Qxg7 Bf6 16.Qxh7 Kd6 and black has a solid advantage.

     How about 13.O-O Rf8 14.Qe4 Qd6 15.Bd2 Kd7 16.Bxd5 exd4 17.Rfe1 Bd8 18.Qxd4 Kc7 19.Qxg7ch Kb8 20.Rad1 Bc7 21.f4 +/-

Wrong diagram with respect to game score; here's the correct diagram.

Wow I don't know about that line, black should never be that cramped.  There have to be some major improvements in there.

     We both overlooked the obvious. True, Black can force the exchange of Queens, but White's initiative just gets stronger.

I guess that black does survive in this variation.  I could not find a real improvement anywhere.  I suppose the last word would have to fall upon 9.0-0.  Still, the above line leads to a difficult endgame for black, albeit playable.

Rybka seems to like 10. Qf6, which seems to equalize after giving back the knight.