Traxler Counter-Attack

Follow every post on this topic. I love the Traxler, as i won so many games with it. But, I think it is agreed by all that a booked up master White player will at worst end up drawing it.

But, the opponent has to be booked up. It just is so agressive by Black, and White has plenty of fairly plausible moves which lose.

Yes, indeed, it was already pointed out. In some situations (e.g. a game against a stronger player), 5. Nxf7 guarantees U a draw (if U are booked up, of course).

It's not only the horizon effect but also flaws in algorithms. Engines know about drawish lines but persist to neglect them cuz of better intermediate options.

Ok

I analyzed this for very long and I see, it's a good variation :-)

There was another thread on this a few days back where I was looking at this variation and didn't see 0-0-0 because I thought I was supposed to be looking for a draw so I went for the repetitions that were on the board. Thanks Conquistador for showing my error.

Was under the impression the bust to the Traxler was 5.Nxf7! Bxf2+ 6.Kxf2! Nxe4+ 7.Ke3!!

The last time we looked at that line, I remember that it was fairly forcing for both sides.

5.Nxf7 Bxf2+ 6.Kxf2 Nxe4+ 7.Ke3 Qh4 8.g3 Nxg3 9.hxg3 Qd4+ 10.Kf3 d5 11.Rh4 e4+ 12.Kg2 0-0 which branched off into a number of variations.

One example line would be this:

13.Bb3 Rxf7 14.Qg1 Qe5 15.Nc3 g5 which should be equal.  Most variations sort of peter out into equality or advantage to black.  It is certainly a better try than 7.Kg1 which gives white near zero winning chances.  

Edit: never mind, i realized my mistake

5.Bxf7+ is indeed better for white, and the best line may well be 5.Bxf7+ Ke7 6.Bc4!, which is much less played than 6.Bb3 or 6.Bd5.

And my personal opinion is that 5.d4! is painfully close to being a refutation of the Traxler.

All opening are good against someone

especially 1.f4 followed by g4.

What if white plays first 5. O-O. It seems to me that white cannot apply traxler with such ease anymore