Is this "Fried Liver"?

Hi Paraman.

"I was thinking about protecting against the king-rook fork"

Don't worry about Knight forks and losing undeveloped a1 Rooks.
It takes 4 precious moves for a Knight to go from b8 to a1.

Here that Knight made 4 moves in the first ten moves with a King
caught on the toilet seat at e6.

Think tempo, not material.

If Black had played the better move 8....Nb4.



Holding the pinned d5 Knight and threatening the c2 fork then the
best move is to allow it. Infact encourage it with 9.a3.

See below for the gist of the idea.
After 11.Nxd5 this position has risen 20 times on The RHP database.
White winning a screaming 95%. (1 Black got away with a draw).

A very difficult, if not impossible position to defend for a
lower graded player.

If you are going to dabble in this Ng5 variation then perhaps you
should take a look at some of the games on the RHP DB.
You will get a whole bucket load of ideas

In the 1900+ section the Fried Liver has popped up 3 times.
1 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss.

However although I play 6.Nxf7 in skittles games. I think 6.d4
is better than Knight sac on f7.


*

Originally posted by greenpawn34

However although I play 6.Nxf7 in skittles games. I think 6.d4
is better than Knight sac on f7.

Hi GP,

All this Fried Liver stuff is beyond me. The first time my liver got fried, I didn't even know enough to play 7...Ke6, and it ended badly and quickly. I think I may have played a second FL game where I at least played Ke6, but still lost.

So I decided that I either needed to learn some lines in the FL, or... now I just play 3...Bc5 and avoid the whole mess. 😛

So much for idle chat, the real reason I posted was to mention an interesting 2-page article in the Chess Life magazine I just got a few days ago. By Dan Heisman, it's on the FL/Lolli. (I hate to always drop Heisman's name here, but he's actually done a lot of research on the FL/Lolli.) Dan's always agreed with conventional wisdom that the Fried Liver (6.Nxf7) is the "bad" Fried Liver, while the Lolli (6.d4) is the "good" Fried Liver.

But he recently did some new analysis, and the upshot of the article is that he now thinks that 6.Nxf7 might be just as good (or even slightly better! ) than 6.d4. (I hope you aren't going to quiz me on this stuff, my eyes tend to glaze over trying to go through all the variations in the article. )

The 'official' name of the 'Fried Liver' is the Fegatello Attack - fegatello is Italian for 'liver'. Wits among us describe a hangover as a 'Fegatello Attack'. But anyway...

8....Ncb4 is now the preferred way to proceed, replacing the older 8...Nce7 which seems to lose by force.

There is some disagreement between 9. a3 and 9. Bb3. I've played both with mixed results. If 9. a3 Nxc2+; 10. Kd1, there is a strong difference of opinion between 10...Na1 winning the R; and 10...Nd4!? which I personally favour. I've met both moves, again with mixed results.

The Fegatello is definitely defensible for B; might even be winning. To that extent, I've U-turned my assessment of the opening, having once thought B stood no chance.

If the thread continues, I'll dig out some of my games in the line to illustrate various points.

I might add that engines do struggle to evaluate the positions

I would imagine engines might struggle with it as it's
all about active play v material.

If the things horizon cannot see a defeat after say 16 moves then Black
is OK and yet no good player wants the Black side.

The evaluation of d4 v Nxf7 has chopped and changed since I got my
first Two Knights book. A blue effort printed by CHESS written by Estrin
in the mid 70's.

What a book. Every, yes every, tactical trick you will ever need to know
is buried within it's pages.

However Estrin cannot be trusted - look at his analysis very carefully.

He often bales out with "...this line needs more testing."

Not really his fault, some the lines he opted to look at in all the
Two Knights variations are very complex and highly tactical.
Mistakes/oversites were bound to ahppen. (sic) 😉

I played a Fried Liver it a few days ago live on the large garden
set at the museum. The bloke played 7...Kg8.



I mated him with 8.Qxd5+

Also played a real cracker-jacker there a few days previous. (A Caro Kann),
Someone took my picture mid game and I'm waiting for them to email
it to me.

Wait till you see this. Your jaws will sag, your knees will bend and you
shall whisper my name with the greats forever.

Played about 12 games on that life size set. Lost two.
One genuine, the other I gave up in a slightly better position
'cos the bloke was taking ages. I mean ages to make a move.

I'll give them a few more days to get the pic to me.

Ah yes, the great Estrin book. I have exactly the same dark blue volume too. It was a masterpiece in its day, sadly overtaken by engineered analysis. I still love the book though - as a book. It always struck me as a wonderfully modest invitation to some lovely ideas; its plain indigo boards and lightness in the hand offering a hint that you were holding a real work of art

Yes, and Estrin put in some lovely games

Sokolsky - Navrodsky,Russia,1944



White to play.

I had never seen this idea before till I played it out in his book.
It's one of the first games. A taster for what is to come.



And the f-pawn promotes (Bxg7+ is coming).