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chess noob Quick Wins! is a new series of short videos, to demonstrate very quick wins! As a beginner, you become aware of the Scholar’s Mate and the Fool’s Mate, but neither of these show up in real games. However, there are tricky quick checkmates and wins that occur, even at the intermediate level of chess.

The third video in this series comes from playing with the Black pieces, against what was an opportunistic Fried Liver Attack.

My opponent started with the Bishop’s Opening (1. e4 e5 2. Bc4), and as I’m not very familiar with this, I steer it back towards an Italian Game by playing my queen’s knight (2… Nc6). According to the Lichess community database of lower-rated blitz and rapid games, the single most common next move for White is the king’s knight (3. Nf3) occurring over a third of the time, and we’ve transposed back into the Italian.

I also develop my other knight, the Two Knights Defense (3… Nf6) and as we’ve arrived in this position via the Bishop’s Opening, it probably means that White is not a committed Fried Liver Attack player (they would have played the Italian Game directly). However, it also means that they may play it opportunistically, and thus be unprepared for the fact that I’m baiting this!

They start the Fried Liver Attack on the next move, and I respond with the Ponziani-Steinitz Gambit (4. Ng5 Nxe4). This gambit is very bad for White if they continue down the plan of the Fried Liver! They do on move 5 but resign two moves later having lost their queen and according to Stockfish, in a position with a forced checkmate in 11 moves!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/58653719037

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.10.04"]
[Round "-"]
[White "kubasrobar"]
[Black "vitualis"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "C23"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Bishops-Opening"]
[UTCDate "2022.10.04"]
[UTCTime "20:22:22"]
[WhiteElo "1338"]
[BlackElo "1356"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[Termination "vitualis won by resignation"]
[StartTime "20:22:22"]
[EndDate "2022.10.04"]
[EndTime "20:26:59"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/live/58653719037"]

1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nc6 {Trying to steer the Bishop's Opening back into an Italian} 3. Nf3 Nf6 {Two Knights Defense - trying to provoke a Fried Liver Attack} 4. Ng5 {And White takes the bait} 4... Nxe4 {Ponziani-Steinitz Gambit is very winning if White continues down their plan of the Fried Liver Attack} 5. Nxf7 $2 {A mistake [-0.63]} 5... Qh4 6. Qf3 Nd4 7. g3 {[%c_arrow
d4f3;keyPressed;none;from;d4;opacity;0.8;to;f3;persistent;false,f3e1;keyPressed;none;from;f3;opacity;0.8;to;e1;persistent;false][%c_highlight
f3;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f3;persistent;false]} 7... Nxf3+
{[%c_effect e8;square;e8;type;Winner,e1;square;e1;type;ResignWhite] White resigns [-M11]} 0-1