The fried liver attack begins only if black plays Nf6 on 3rd move. The fried liver attack will give a quick victory if the black is not careful and has not learned proper defense against it.

I will answer all related questions and I will also teach you how to win quickly if black allows the fried liver attack.

 

A quick video intro for fried liver attack

Who invented fried liver attack?

There is no exact name of the founder of fried liver attack because it’s been played many many years ago, and we find the earliest game which is played by Giulio Cesare Polerio in the chess database that’s why we called him the founder. But as I have said that the fried liver attack also played before Giulio with unknown names.

How do you do a Fried Liver Attack?

If you want to do a fried liver attack, after the third move nf6 from your opponent, which is called Two knight defense, you may have the option to play the fried liver attack. Let me assure you that you can not force black to fried liver attack. The fried liver attack is only possible when your opponent plays the two-knight defense.

The fried liver attack starts when black takes the d5 pawn with the knight on move 5. Please remember that you can only play fried liver attack if black allows you by playing knight takes d5 pawn.

Is the Fried Liver Attack Good for beginners?

The fried liver attack is a good opening for beginners for three reasons. One is that it has less theory and all moves from white are forcing. If black is not responding accurately then black will be crushed in the opening.

The second reason is that it’s a straightforward opening and basically white start the attack before developing all his remaining chess pieces. And the third reason is that it attacks the weakest point in the opening phase, which is called the f7 pawn.

So in conclusion it’s a good opening choice for beginners.

Is the Fried Liver Attack sound?

Yes, it’s a sound attack if your rating is under 1800, that does not mean that grandmasters are not playing this opening. There are many games available in the database played by above 2500 rating players.

But nowadays with engine assistants, they don’t get enough advantage and black equalizes easily that’s why the fried liver attack is not sound at high-level chess. But if you are under the 1800 rating then you can have many quick victories with the fried liver attack.

Do GMS play the Fried Liver Attack?

Yes GMS plays the fried liver attack but in blitz time format because in the long run black equalizes easily and the fried liver attack dose not provide sufficient problems to the GMS. As I have mentioned above that if you are under 1800, then you can play fried liver attack with success.

Why is it called the fried liver attack?

Actually, the fried liver is the translation of the Italian word ” Fegatello ” which means liver. Italian people cock the liver on the net over the fire and you may be thinking how does this fried liver apply to chess,  you are right and you will be surprised when your opponent will fall into the fried liver attack and you will cock his king on the fire.

How to play fried liver attack?

You can not play fried liver attack with white pieces until black allows you to play. In the Spanish game on 3rd move if black plays Nf6 then you have the option to jump your knight to g5 if you want to play fried liver attack.

This is the position where black plays nf6 and that’s where you can play fried liver attack. Please note that if in this position black plays bishop to c5 then you can not play the fried liver attack.

Now black plays the Nf6 move and white will respond with the Ng5 move because we want to play the fried liver attack. Here is the picture of the next move Ng5.

In this position, white is attacking the weakest square on f7. Now black has the only way to defend the position by playing the d5 move, otherwise black will lose a queen or a rook.

And yes this is the only move to defend black. Black plays d5 in order to break the combination of the bishop and knight which were attacking the f7 square.

White capture the pawn and attack the knight. In this position, the best move for black is to play knight a5 in order to attack the bishop but most beginners and those who don’t study theory will play the more natural move knight take d5.

This is the dream position of the fried liver attack. Black plays naturally and thinks that he took back the pawn and at the same time he is attacking white’s knight on g5. But as I said earlier in this position you can fry black’s king by playing knight takes f7.

Now the fried liver attack has been launched successfully and black can not win from this position. Black is forced to take the knight otherwise he will lose either his queen or a rook.

If you are playing with white pieces and you reached this position I can give you a guarantee that you will win.

Now black has no choice but to take the knight.

Queen to f3, this is the move that you need to play if the black king takes your knight. These are three things that queen f3 does.

1. Queen gives a check to the king
2. Queen is also attacking the d5 knight
3. Queen and bishop both are attacking the pinned knight at d5. The rule of the pin is to pin and win.

I hope these three points will be remembered and you will not forget the best move which is the queen to f3.

As I highlighted all black king moves that black king can make, but there is only one move which is saving the d5 knight which is king to e6.

All other moves will lose a knight and if your opponent plays the king to g8 then it’s a checkmate in one move, have you found the checkmate?

So here, in this position, we will analyze the most logical move which is king to e6.

In this position, we will watch some chess games so we can understand how to win in this position.

Let’s analyze this position in an easy way.

• If we look at both kings we can clearly see that the black king is going to be fried. And the White king is safe.
• White has won the pawn.
• White is down the piece and white must win back his piece which is a knight on d5 otherwise white will lose the game.

Now let’s see in the games below that how white took the advantage of black’s weak and fried king.

Fried Liver Attack Game 1:

Fried Liver Attack Game 2:

Fried Liver Attack Game 3:

 

Fried Liver Attack Game 4:

Fried Liver Attack Game 5:

Fried Liver Attack Game 6:

Fried Liver Attack Game 7:

Fried Liver Attack Game 8:

Fried Liver Attack Game 9:

Fried Liver Attack Game 10:

 

In all these 10 games of fried liver attack, you may notice that black has suffered from king dance and that’s why it’s called fried liver attack. Black always has to defend his king in all his games in fried liver attack and white has the chance to attack the black king on every move.

Now Let’s answer some of the questions so you can learn more about fried liver attacks.

How to defend fried liver attack

If you play against the fried liver attack then you must know how to stop a fried liver attack, it can be easily stopped if you just know to respond to white’s move d5.

Let me explain in the picture below.

This is the position where the black player has captured the pawn with the knight instead black should play the knight a5 move as shown in the above picture.

If you want to counter the fried liver attack or defend the fried liver attack then you should not take the d5 pawn instead you should play the move knight to a5 attacking the bishop.

This is the move that prevents a fried liver attack. Knight attacks the undefended bishop. Now white has to move or protect his bishop.

The best move for white in this position is the Bb5 check.

In this position black has two best moves, one is to block check with bishop d7 and the other which is more forcing is c6.

I recommend that you should play the c6 move instead of bishop d7 because the c6 move forces white’s bishop on the next move.

White captures the pawn and threatens to discover the check from his bishop. In this position, black must take back with the b pawn and not with the knight.

This is the position where we will watch some of the games from the black side in order to understand how to counter the fried liver attack.

Defending fried liver attack game 1:

This is the game played in 2011 in blitz format between Nigel Short and Garry Kasparov. Please flip the board to the black side for a better view.

Defending fried liver attack game 2:

Please flip the board to the black side for a better view.

Conclusion

Let’s conclude fried liver attack. If you are playing with white pieces and black allows you to play fried liver attack then you must sacrifice your knight on f7 and then win the game.

If you are defending the fried liver attack then you should not take the d5 pawn with the knight instead you will play knight a5 hitting the undefended bishop.

If you have any questions related to the fried liver attack, you can ask them on our questions page: https://thechessforum.com/questions/