Hi everyone! In this video we're going to look at a famous opening that all beginners should know it's a lot of fun. So white begins with e4 which places a pawn in the center, opens up diagonals for the bishop and the queen, and black responds in kind. Then knight f3 attacks the e-pawn and black defends with knight to c6 developing a piece toward the center.
Now white plays bishop to c4 and this is known as the Italian game and that's a well-placed bishop. It's headed right at that f7 square right through that central d5 square. Okay and black has a choice here.
He can play bishop to c5 and that's known as the gioco piano or another common move here is knight to f6. That's what we're going to look at and this is called the two knights defense. Now white can play very aggressively here by making the move knight to g5, attacking that f7 square for a second time, and black needs to defend that point, the f7 point.
There doesn't seem to be a good way to defend it. The only way to do it is to block the bishop with d5. There is another alternative though, and we might look at it in a different video.
There's a counter-attack called the Traxler counter-attack, bishop to c5, pointed at white's weak corresponding f2 square. But that's another video. So we're going to look at d5, which blocks this bishop's access to f7.
Alright, well, white can take that pawn. He can play e takes d5. And now black has a decision to make.
If you've never faced this before as the black player, then... reasonable move that would come to mind is recovering your pawn with knight takes d5. Since you have two pieces attacking that pawn, then there's only one defender.
So it looks like black can recover the pawn here. and restore the material equality. And that knight is now doing the function that the pawn had. It's blocking this bishop's access to f7.
However, most people would tell you not to play this move. It's considered to be at least an inaccuracy, if not an outright mistake. And instead of that move, what the black player typically does is follow the main line with knight to a5, sacrificing that pawn, not recovering the pawn, and counterattacking the bishop.
And that's another opening entirely that we're not going to look at today. So we are going to look at this mistake here. Knight takes d5. Now, the reason that's a mistake is quite subtle and detailed. It's because white can generate a very quick attack on the black king for his sacrificed pawn.
Now, the fried liver attack... begins with the move, the surprising move, knight takes f7. That pawn was defended by the king and the knight is blocking the bishop so it looks like white couldn't take that pawn, but he does so anyway, and we're going to see the tactical implications of this move.
Before we look any further, though, I wanted to point out that that move is very old. It was played over 400 years ago for the first time in recorded chess history, so it's quite old, and it is referred to as the fried liver attack once you take that pawn. And by the way, the reason it's called the fried liver attack, I learned this on the Wikipedia page, is because it's a metaphor.
It's a way of... that Italians cook liver, they put it in a net and fry it in a pan or over a fire. And so it's a metaphor. White is going to put the black king in a mating net and increase the heat move by move, like cooking a piece of liver. All right, so that explains the name.
Also, I wanted to mention that this is an old way of playing here. If a grandmaster faced this position, which he probably almost never would because grandmasters don't play knight takes d5 here, then he would probably play d4 instead of knight takes f7. Knight takes f7 still might come later though. d4 is called the lolly attack and it's a modern improved version of this line of play. But we're not going to look at that in this video.
We're going to look at the fried liver attack. Knight takes f7. Okay, so what's the point of this move? Well, white is forking the queen and the rook. So black has no choice here.
He must... take the knight. If he doesn't take the knight, he has to move the queen somewhere to safety, and then white can get the rook.
And white has a pawn and a rook for nothing, and he's going to be safe. So black has no choice. He has to take the knight. Well, white planned this follow-up queen to f3 check, and that forks the king and the knight.
And the knight on d5 has two attackers now, so that forces black's next move as well. He has to move toward the center of the board to defend the knight. There's nothing else he can do.
For example, a common beginner's mistake here is to try to hide back on the g8 square. Well that just gives white an immediate checkmate. White can play either queen takes d5 or bishop takes d5.
It doesn't really matter which. And then that forces either a recapture here or a block there, but if black blocks, then taking the bishop is mate, and if black captures, then white gets the queen with a check, forcing this block anyway, and that's a mate. So you can't move your king back to g8, and you really don't want to move it anywhere else.
like here because white's simply going to win their piece back and now white is up a pawn and has a very big attack on the black king including a check threat right here on f7. So there's no better move than to come up toward the center of the board and so what white has done is he has invested his knight in order to draw the king forward toward the center of the board and attack it. Okay, now notice this knight on d5 is pinned, and so white increases the pressure now with knight to c3.
So there are three attackers on the knight, the queen, the knight, and the bishop, and there are only two defenders, the king and the queen. So black needs another defender. Otherwise, white is going to win his piece back and be up a pawn, and the black king will still be stuck in the center, and white will still be attacking.
attacking it and probably checkmating soon. So black needs to defend this. Well, the only piece that can defend it is this knight.
And there are two moves you can make to defend it. A move that a lot of beginners make here is the move knight to e7, which is the worst of the two ways to defend it. That's not a good move because it's very passive, retreating the knight. and it blocks the diagonals here. The bishop cannot get out and the queen cannot get out.
In a lot of lines this queen would like to come to f6 to challenge our queen on f3 and hope to trade queens to quell the attack. And this knight just blocks things in. White can open the position now with d4 threatening to take on e5 and continue attacking.
The bishop now has a line into the game. It can come to g5 and pin this knight and maybe even remove the knight which is defending the d5 square. White can then castle on either side of the board.
He can castle long if he moves this bishop and then his rook will be well placed down the d file. And so black is just not doing so well after that move, knight to e7. Instead, you should move your knight forward to b4 to defend.
So now black does have three defenders. It's more aggressive. It keeps the diagonals open here.
And that knight is now threatening the c2 square. Now I'll mention briefly one other move in this position besides defending the knight on d5 with one of these two knight moves. Another move that's quite old that people used to play is knight to d4.
It's a counter attack. It does nothing to defend the pinned knight on d5, but it does attack the queen and the c2 square. If you see that move as white here, the antidote to it is to take the knight with your bishop and call check and then the king will have to move probably to d6 and now you can move your queen to safety and the best place to put it is actually on g3 okay which is right in line with the king pinning the pawn and you're ignoring the threat on the c2 square for example if black goes after your rook by forking on c2 then just play king d1 and if he takes the rook you can play d4 to attack that pinned pawn and open the position wide open again. And your rook is coming to the e1 square, and black simply cannot survive the attack that all the white pieces are generating.
So, that is the antidote to that old move, knight. to d4. So the main way black would play this today if he plays this at all, okay, I don't recommend this as black to allow the fried liver attack, black can play knight to b4.
b4 to defend and attack this square right here. Now throughout the years there's been a debate as to what White's best response is here. It has been updated over the decades, especially with the advent of strong computer engines.
A long time ago people used to play a3 and allow this and then just move the king over and even allow the rook to be taken. and then just generate an attack against the black king. Engines say, though, that that is actually okay for black. Black can defend that position after even taking the rook.
Black can defend the position. Another move that is sometimes played is castling and I used to think that was the best move in the position and it's not bad but that's not what the engine recommends anymore. Allowing this kind of thing and then you can open the position with d4 and get this rook into play quickly. Instead what the engine recommends is simply bishop to b3 defending the c2 pawn. and keeping the pressure on that pinned knight.
Now after bishop b3, white has a threat. He's threatening to play a3, which will drive the knight away from defending on d5, and then... white can take the knight on d5. So black is advised to try c6 here to bolster that knight on d5. Then white can play a3, and it looks like the knight has to go back.
to the a6 square then you can castle and continue your attack okay however the knight doesn't have to go back to the a6 square the engine recommends actually keeping it there at least for the time being and playing queen to f6 just Trying to get the Queens off the board. Remember black is up a piece in the position once white sacrificed his knight on the f7 square. Now here the engine line runs queen to e4 trying to keep the queen.
on the board and keeping pressure on that pinned knight and also pinning that pawn on e5. But black can continue to attack that queen and now white has nothing better than to trade queens and drag that king even further up the board and then white can take the knight on b4. Black can capture the pawn back and threaten the c2 square. Okay, and white can defend by playing king to d1.
And material is actually equal in this crazy position. The king is well up the board here. In fact, the engine recommends playing g4 and drawing it even further up the board, which is kind of funny.
But the engine says black is doing okay. When I look at the engine, Early on in the fried liver, it gives white somewhere between a plus one, a one pawn advantage, to a plus 1.5. But then when I go down the recommended lines that the engine gives, the score goes lower and lower and lower to something even less than plus 0.5. It seems to be barely playable as black.
There's been a ton of research on this opening, though. A lot has been written. People have researched it by hand and with computers. And it may all be a moot point because this new lolly attack I mentioned earlier has kind of taken over. And that's what a grandmaster would play instead of this fried liver attack.
Okay, so that is my introduction to this opening. It's fascinating. A lot of tactics. dangerous.
I don't recommend playing it for black even if the engine says you can because you're just defending from the first move. You have really no task except to defend the position and it's very hard to do so and you could easily go wrong. And one more thing I'll say is a lot of beginners actually misname the opening. A lot of people name it the fried liver too early.
Like I've heard people call this position the fried liver as soon as black plays knight to f6, but it's not. That's the two knights defense, and it's a perfectly playable move. It's an acceptable move that grandmasters do sometimes play, even if they do prefer bishop to c5 nowadays. So that's not the fried liver. Knight to g5 is sometimes referred to as the fried liver attack, but that's not the fried liver either, and black is doing fine in this position.
Black should play d5, white should capture the pawn, and now if black captures the pawn back with his knight that allows white to play the fried liver if he chooses, knight takes out seven. That begins the fried liver attack. Now black probably should shouldn't allow that, so instead the main line is to play knight to a5 and give up a pawn and try to get better development than white. All right, thanks for watching this introductory video on the fried liver attack.