Fried Liver Attack
C57 · Played as white · Intermediate · Traps & Tricks
Sacrifice a knight on f7 and march the black king up the board
The main line
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Nxd5 6.Nxf7 Kxf7 7.Qf3+ Ke6 8.Nc3
Strategic ideas
- Jump to g5 and hit f7 — the weakest square in Black's position
- Sacrifice the knight on f7 to drag the king out before it can castle
- Pile onto the d5-knight with Qf3 and Nc3 while the king is exposed
- Force the king to e6 where it stands in the middle of an open board
- Learn the defence too: …Na5 hits the bishop and takes the whole attack off the table
Key themes
- Attack — The knight sacrifice buys a permanently exposed king and White never stops making threats
- Tactics — It's a forcing sequence from move four; there is very little to understand and a lot to calculate
- King Safety — Black's king ends up on e6 in the middle of the board with the game still going
Typical plans
The Italian name is Fegatello — "dead as a piece of liver" — which is roughly what happens to Black's king. White jumps to g5, hits f7, and when Black defends with …d5, White sacrifices the knight anyway. The king is dragged to f7 and then to e6, where it stands in the open with White's queen and knight closing in. It's not a swindle: Black has to defend accurately for a long time. The proper answer is 5…Na5, hitting the bishop and declining the whole argument — every Two Knights player should know it.
Move by move
- e4 — White claims the centre.
- e5 — Black meets it symmetrically.
- Nf3 — White develops, attacking e5.
- Nc6 — Black defends the pawn.
- Bc4 — White develops toward f7.
- Nf6 — Black develops and hits e4, ignoring the pressure on f7 — the Two Knights Defence.
- Ng5 — White jumps to g5, attacking f7 with two pieces. It breaks every opening principle — the knight moves twice — and it's the most dangerous move on the board.
- d5 — Black hits back in the centre, the correct response.
- exd5 — White takes.
- Nxd5 — Black recaptures with the knight. This is the critical decision: …Na5! instead kicks the bishop and defuses everything. Taking invites the sacrifice.
- Nxf7 — White sacrifices the knight on f7. This is the Fried Liver — a whole piece for the black king.
- Kxf7 — Black must take; declining leaves White a clean pawn up with a raging attack anyway.
- Qf3+ — White checks and hits the d5-knight in the same move. The knight is attacked twice — by the queen and the c4-bishop — and defended only once.
- Ke6 — Black's king walks up to e6 to defend the knight a second time. It's the only move that holds — and now the king stands in the middle of an open board.
- Nc3 — White brings the last piece into the attack, hitting the knight a third time. White is a knight down for a pawn, the black king is on e6 and every white piece is pointing at it — this position has been analysed for four hundred years and Black is still, remarkably, holding on.