The best counter to the Fried Liver as black

Greetings,
The Fried Liver Attack is a common and annoying attack used by white to gain a developmental and material advantage early in the game. I want to make the point clear that there are SEVERAL (less dangerous, probably) ways to counter it. However, I have this line is the most rewarding if played accurately. (I would put a visual representation here, but I unfortunately don’t know how to do that. Can anyone tell me how?) It starts 1.e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5… The point of the last move by white is create a dangerous fork between black’s queen and rook on f7, backed up by the bishop on c4. Here, play Bc5. Everybody is skeptical of this… “But, wait… can’t they still fork you???” Yes, they can. And that’s the entire point. After Nxf7, Sacrifice your bishop with Bf2+. White will almost always take the trade with Kxf2. Then play Nxe4+. Again, you put the king in check. The most common response is Ke3, as it’s considered a safe move. Here, save your queen from the fork and move it to h4. (Qh4). A common dubious mistake by white is to take the rook (“ooh, free material. Better take that!”) This is forced mate. 8. Nxh8 Qf4+ 9. Kd3 Nb4+ 10. Ke2 Qf2#. I hope you found this forum helpful. Please comment any insights you may have on the topic. As always, thanks! :)

I will show what i know. (A lot)

So first, the fried liver attack was namd what it is because that is how dead scholars thought black was.

e5 nc6 3. bc4 nf6 by iitself is fine, if you know what to do

so we get

The quiet is played just about as often as . With white tries to strike at the f7-square, which is the "Achilles heel" for black in the king's-pawn openings. The drawback is that white moves the same piece twice, giving us time to counterattack with 4... d5!

The great american grandmaster Reuben Fine had a "working rule" for e5 openings: "once black succeeds in playing ... d7(6)-d5 without any immediate harmful consequences he has equalized." While it's not always true, it's still a good rule of thumb to remember, and we see it in many variations. Here blacks d-pawn push offers white a pawn for quick and easy development, and it also blocks the c4-bishop from attacking f7. Its great when moves have more than one purpose!

5. exd5. Almost forces. Other captures are much worse: 5. Bxd5?? loses to 5. ... Nxd5 6. exd5 Qxg5 7. dxc6 Qxg2.

And 5. nxf7? is rare, but ppl who really want to fried liver you might try it. unfortunately for white, black gets a great game with 5. ... kxf7 6. exd5 nd4 7. d6+ Be6

5. ... Na5!

Actually, the Fried Liver Attack is not common because anyone with common sense as Black won't allow it.

Contrary to popular belief of noobs, 4.Ng5 is NOT the Fried Liver. The Fried Liver is specifically the position after 4...d5 5.exd5 Nxd5?? 6.Nxf7.

Black can disallow this bogus by playing 5...Na5!! Instead of taking the pawn back.

ThrillerFan wrote:
Actually, the Fried Liver Attack is not common because anyone with common sense as Black won’t allow it. Contrary to popular belief of noobs, 4.Ng5 is NOT the Fried Liver. The Fried Live…

Thanks for your insight,
Again, at my rating range, I find the Fried Liver to be pretty common, and yes, at my rating range, black usually doesn’t know how NOT to allow it. That’s the entire point of my post. (Also, I never said that Ng5 was the Fried Liver, more just that it leads to it). As always, thanks! :)

The above position Official Name is:

- Italian Game: Knights Attack Variation

It’s not the Fried Liver Attack, but it can lead to the Fried Liver Attack if Black plays poorly.

The Best move for Black is to play 4…d5.

The move d5 breaks up the coordination of Knight + Bishop.

The move 4…Bc5 is known as the Traxler Counter Attack/Gambit.

It can be a tricky line and White can get in trouble if they don’t know what they are doing.

With Best Play, Black loses.

The easiest way to shut down the Traxler Counterattack is by taking with Bishop & Retreating.

Black loses 1 pawn & castling rights.

White Best plan is to just retreat and play the game normally up 1 pawn with Blacks bad King.

White taking on f7 with Knight is extremely risky and White could get checkmate if they don’t know the exact key moves.

If White does know the right key moves, White will win even in the above line which is why a lot of people say the Traxler Counterattack/Gambit is dead or a bust.

I like taking f7 with the Bishop because it is super easy to play and win. White side steps all of Blacks attacking lines.

Anyway, People still play the Traxler in Club Level Chess because it’s Fun and it can catch some people off guard.

This is the modern way to play the Fritz variation (usually Black went via the 5...Nd4 6.c3 b5 7.Bf1 route, but 5...b5 first gives white less options).

The key move is 15...f6! after which the engines do confirm that Black is completely equal. This wouldn't mean much, but the whole line is quite easy to handle properly as Black.

Bru I made a post on exact Same thing

Wrong. 5.Nxf7 is a mistake, and Black equalizes after 5...Bxf2+.

This is with both sides playing the optimal moves, while in practice Black has the easier game.

This has been confirmed by thousands of OTB and correspondence games.