The Fried Liver Attack, also called the Fegatello Attack (named after an Italian dish), is a

chess opening The opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established Chess_theory#Opening_theory, theory. The other phases are the chess middlegame, middlegame and the chess endgame, endgame. Many opening sequences, known as ''op ...

variation of the

Two Knights Defense The Two Knights Defense (also called the Prussian Defense) is a chess opening that begins with the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 Nc6 :3. Bc4 Nf6 First recorded by Giulio Cesare Polerio (c. 1550 – c. 1610) in the late 16th century, this line o ...

in which White

sacrifices Sacrifice is an act or offering made to a deity. A sacrifice can serve as propitiation, or a sacrifice can be an offering of praise and thanksgiving. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks ...

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

for an attack on Black's

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

. The opening begins with the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 Nc6 :3. Bc4 Nf6 :4. Ng5 d5 :5. exd5 Nxd5?! :6. Nxf7 White has chosen the offensive line 4.Ng5 against the Two Knights, but 5...Nxd5 is risky (5...Na5, the Polerio Defense, is considered better; other Black choices include 5...b5 and 5...Nd4).

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...

felt that 6.d4 (the Lolli Attack) was incredibly strong, to the point 5...Nxd5 is rarely played. Fischer's analysis of this line is in game 45, Fischer - Bisguier 1963 The Fried Liver Attack, however, involves the knight sacrifice 6.Nxf7. The opening is popular with younger players who like the name and the aggressive, attacking style. It is classified as code C57 in the ''

Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings The ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' (''ECO'') is a reference work describing the state of Chess theory#Opening theory, opening theory in chess, originally published in five volumes from 1974 to 1979 by the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugos ...

''.

History

The Fried Liver Attack has been known for many centuries, the earliest known example being a game played by

Giulio Cesare Polerio Giulio Cesare Polerio (c. 1555, – c. 1610; reconstruction of places and dates by Adriano Chicco) was an Italian chess theoretician and player. Name affixes used for him are ''l'Apruzzese'', Giu io Cesare ''da Lanciano'' (Salvio/Walker), and ...

before 1606.Polerio–Giovanni Domenico d'Arminio must have been played before 1606 (Polerio's last sign of life, see: Peter Monté ''The Classical Era of Modern Chess'' (McFarland 2014), p. 273)

Computer chess Computer chess includes both hardware (dedicated computers) and software capable of playing chess. Computer chess provides opportunities for players to practice even in the absence of human opponents, and also provides opportunities for analysi ...

programs, including those on large mainframes, were reportedly still vulnerable to the attack in 1980.

Considerations

After 6...Kxf7, play usually continues 7.Qf3+ Ke6 (7...Kg8 leads to a mate in 3 after 8.Bxd5+ while other moves immediately lose the knight on d5) 8.Nc3 (''diagram''). Black will play 8...Nb4 and follow up with ...c6, bolstering their pinned knight on d5. White can the b4-knight to abandon protection of the d5-knight with 9.a3, a move

Yakov Estrin Yakov Borisovich Estrin (Russian: Я́ков Бори́сович Эстрин, April 21, 1923 – February 2, 1987) was a Russian chess player, chess theoretician, writer, and World Correspondence Chess Champion who held the chess titles of In ...

recommended, but Black is quite strong after 9.a3 Nxc2+ 10.Kd1 Nd4 or 10...Nxa1! 11.Nxd5 Qh4! when White's attack runs out (12.Nxc7+ Kd7 13.Qf7+ Qe7 and the queens come off; after 12.Nb6+ Ke7, 13.Nxc8+ is met by 13...Rxc8 14.d3 Kd8, and 13.Qf7+ is met by 13...Kd8 14.Nxa8 Bd7; either way, Black's king is safe and Black has the advantage). Thus, 9.Bb3, 9.Qe4, or 9.0-0 are better choices. White has a strong attack, but it has not yet been proven to be decisive. Because defence is harder to play than attack in this variation, the Fried Liver is dangerous for Black, particularly with shorter

time control A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. For turn-based games such as chess, shogi or go, time cont ...

References

Bibliography *

External links

The Fried Liver Attack
blog by GM

Boris Alterman Boris Alterman (, ; born May 4, 1970) is a Ukrainian-born Israeli chess International Grandmaster, Grandmaster, FIDE Senior Trainer (2010), advisor of the Junior (chess program), Junior chess program. He started playing chess at the age of 7. H ...

Fried Liver Attack
The Chess Website by Kevin Butler {{Chess, state=collapsed Chess openings

History

Considerations

References

Further reading

External links