Resources to help with aggressive opening attacks that interrupt development?

Hello, I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions for resources that address defending against aggressive early attacks such as near-immediate knight/bishop team-ups. I'm not very comfortable with games where I'm interrupted from my development, and in my last two games in particular as I type this, I've been torn apart, perhaps as a result of mismanaging priorities. I'm sure there's an element of hanging pieces in there too, but playing against these attacks has consistently been an issue for me and I'd appreciate any guidance!

usually around your level the knight/bishop combo is some variant of the "fried liver attack" and there's a solid counter called 'traxler' that's easy to learn and really satisfying when it works. the other thing that stops that knight/bishop combo is a3 or h3. you'll find that gets played right up to 1300-1400 level. the other thing i typically see is developing your knight to the side of the board, protecting the pawn that's targeted by both knight & bishop. good luck!

and a small critique of your last game, the second your opponent gets the bishop/knight out like that, try a6. what you did was actually the correct line, but after he retreated his dark square bishop you should have just taken it with your knight. it removes the threat of a fried liver attack, it doubles up your opponent's pawns, and it also stops your opponent from having bishop advantage (both bishops on the board)

@1

"defending against aggressive early attacks" ++ Play in the center.

"near-immediate knight/bishop team-ups" ++ 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 Ng5 d5 5 exd5 Na5 black has full compensation for the pawn. Ng5 is misplaced.

"hanging pieces" ++ Blunder check before you move.

the line goes a bit further... 6 Bb5+ c6 7 xc6 xc6 and white has two uncoodinated pieces whilst you can develop every piece quickly.

Thanks all, why the downvotes on #2+3? That seems to be the exact kind of attack I've come up against recently.

Oh also a general question, so when early attacks happen, not necessarily just the fried liver, is it most appropriate to immediately pivot to defending even if it halts development or makes the development happen differently than you'd like? I imagine it's best if it's possible to counterattack/defend and develop at the same time...though I'd always love to be able to at least get the bishops and knights out and castle before getting involved with attacks.

This recent game of yours looks like a good example.

While learning specific opening lines isn't that important for improvement, there are a few common attacks that are good to watch out for.

The first being attacks on the f pawn which is famously weak. The Scholar's Mate and The Fried Liver are so common around 500-1000 that it's one of the few openings worth learning to defend against.

The other common attacking idea is getting a knight fork to the c pawn, as seen in this game. This is a pretty popular Accelerated London opening although the attack exists in lots of other openings too. This is so often effective because if you develop your pieces to their most natural squares, this square ends up with no piece support. Even at 1600 I still fall for this sometimes.

So in this game, the innocent looking development move Nf6 on move 3 already makes it impossible to cleanly defend the fork, especially if you don't know the engine lines. The top two moves on move 3 were actually the passive looking a6 to prevent the knight jump, or the weaking f6 to make e5 even stronger, which shows just how strong even the engine thinks this attack can be. You could also play differently against d4 on move 2, by developing your other knight instead, which keeps open the option of playing the strong c5 as well as Na6 to defend your c pawn if needed.

But more generally, just pay special attention to f7 and c7, or f2 and c2 if white. If the other play puts even a single attacker on either of those squares, you should consider over defending that square, or at least keeping a defensive move available, even if it means playing in a slightly passive or awkward way. Hopefully this advice is simple enough to recall during a game. Good luck!