Crushing the Fried Liver Attack

Hello guys!

I've been thinking for a while about writing a small article about the Fried Liver Attack because, according to my experience as a chess coach, I can say that one of the easiest ways for beginners to win is by playing the Fried Liver Attack, also called the Fegatello Attack. I have witnessed more defeats than I can count because beginners are often unfamiliar with this attack or they get scared.

So, let's talk a little bit about this today.

What is the Fried Liver Attack?

It sounds like an Italian dish, well it is. Also, it's a chess opening that, according to chess scientists, 91.5% of beginners will play it against you when they play the double king's pawn to try to make you cry.

This opening is a variation of the Two Knights Defense in which White sacrifices a knight for an attack on Black's king. The opening begins with the moves:

So, the previous game is what usually happens to beginners when they are not familiar with the Fried Liver Attack... So, what do we do to avoid this tragedy?

Well, the easiest way to avoid it is by playing 3...Bc5 instead of 3...Nf6. This way, if the knight jumps to g5, we can capture it for free with our queen. Let's take a look at the next position to understand it better:

As I just mentioned before in the analysis against 3...Bc5, he can play the Evans Gambit, which might also be challenging for beginners to face. However, it's true that the Fried Liver Attack is more popular and more complicated to face than the Evans Gambit.

And now, let's see how we can play against the Fried Liver Attack

Finally, I would like to say again, whatever line you decide to play, try to look for model games and understand the plans rather than memorizing all these moves, because not all of us have Magnus's memory, unfortunately.

Thank you for your time and see you around!