@pfren
the reason is Traxler is ULTIMATELY drawish after 5.Nxf7 and Ulvestad is not.
Also 6.Bf1 is very hard to find OTB if you are not familiar with this line.
( Playing Ulvestad is quite reasonable since everyone in my level who plays 4.Ng5 only know 5...Na5 theory. )
@EndgameStudy No. After Nxf7, White have many ways to draw and a possible win after 5...Bxf2+ 6.Ke3 ( I'm serious ) Maybe you should try the Fritz Line ( 4...d5 5.exd5 Nd4 )
traxler is a cool opening and pretty effective too. Unless the opponent is very well prepared, there are good chances that he will blunder somewhere while defending.
@pfren
They can know 6.Bf1 but no person on earth would prepare a line against a line which % 75 of players even don't know its existence.
@Ashvapathi
If you are higher rated than me, I'll play 5.Nxf7 and take the draw after 5...Bxf2+ 6.Kxf2 Nxe4+ 7.Kg1 Qh4 8. g3 Nxg3 9. Nxh8 Nd4 10. hxg3 Qxg3+ and perpetual.
If you are lower than me ( Which is probably unlikely because I'm 1266 FIDE and lower players wont play some trash ) I'll play 5.Bxf7+ and win.
Hi if you want some more variations for The traxler there is a club here on chess .com (Traxler Analysis) they have assembled years of variations !
i played this myself sometimes with some results
Here the Karpov version of Bxf7+
I need to learn d4 openings lol
Hah! Just play 4...d5 mate and you'll be golden. 
I need to learn d4 openings lol
Hah! Just play 4...d5 mate and you'll be golden.
4...d5 is checkmate?
Some hair-raising lines to be sure but no forced win for Black IF White can find the best moves. 5.Bxf7+ followed by retreating the bishop to b3 is likely best against the Traxler but taking with the knight is certainly viable.
If anyone wants to try the Traxler Counterattack which always wins, by all means post your moves and I will have an engine play against you.
Your turn!
If anyone wants to try the Traxler Counterattack which always wins, by all means post your moves and I will have an engine play against you.
Your turn!
Uhhh... Bxf2 I guess
Some hair-raising lines to be sure but no forced win for Black IF White can find the best moves. 5.Bxf7+ followed by retreating the bishop to b3 is likely best against the Traxler but taking with the knight is certainly viable.
After 5 Bxf7+ the bishop cant go back to b3 he must guard the pawn on e4
If anyone wants to try the Traxler Counterattack which always wins, by all means post your moves and I will have an engine play against you.
Your turn!
Uhhh... Bxf2 I guess
i dont think we can win agaisnt an engine (they dont feel the pressure!) but if you could give the evaluation at the sacrtifice moment and after it would be interesting
That will play Bxf7+ ( Actually engines can't realize Nxf7 is drawish in first sight. I spent 3 weeks proving it. ) and white will win. Just check out some 3000+ vs 3000+ CCRL 40/40 games.
@ fenrissaga qui a écrit: After 5 Bxf7+ the bishop cant go back to b3 he must guard the pawn on e4 Ce n'est pas vrai: 5.Bxf7+ Ke7 6.Bb3 and the Ng5 guards the e4 pawn.
Some hair-raising lines to be sure but no forced win for Black IF White can find the best moves. 5.Bxf7+ followed by retreating the bishop to b3 is likely best against the Traxler but taking with the knight is certainly viable.
9... Qd6 is the plan we analyzed the last time people were looking at this line in a thread. I don't know if 10... Qc5 is the best move. It could be ok and there could be mistakes later in the analysis but 10... Qe7 seems to be good enough, at least if you're playing against Stockfish they're probably going to 11. c3 Bg4 12. Qa4+ Nd7 (the same plan as the last time we looked at this line which I don't remember if Nf7 was played) 13. Kxf2 Qh4+ 14. Kf1 Bh5 and at this point the engine sees Black has a bunch of draws and starts spitting out zeros at depth 22 on my machine right now but if I remember right Black has some plans with 0-0-0 to try to win. I'm not sure where you got your analysis but if you're doing it yourself you have to realize engines are not good in these positions and help them out a little keeping Black's queen somewhere in the neighborhood of White's kingside to make perpetual check and mate threats that could be over the engine's horizon depending how deep it's looking.
OP is clueless. the variation Kxf2 Nxe4+ is a forced draw after Kg1. Kf1 is also a forced draw but white has many ways to blunder. Bxf7 is winning for white but it's not easy. Winning with black with Traxler is hard. Traxler is suboptimal. Those are the reasons why I gave up Traxler and switched to Ulvestad after analyzing it at least till move 20 and move 40 in some variations.