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chess noob Quick Wins! is a 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.

Today’s game is submitted by a Team Australia clubmate @nciSquared. They had the black pieces, and their opponent attempted the Fried Liver Attack by playing the Knight Attack against the Two Knights Defense of the Italian Game (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5). Now, this game is a great demonstration to a counterattack against the Fried Liver that I hadn’t seen before, and it’s one that isn’t quite as risky as my favourite up to this point, the Ponziani-Steinitz Gambit!

Black plays the initial moves in the Fried Liver Attack line (4… d5 5. exd5) but then plays the very interesting (5… Nd4), known as the Fritz Variation of the Two Knights Defense. Stockfish considers this a slight inaccuracy, but it’s only [+0.1 → +0.5]. More importantly, it’s the single most winning response that Black has according to the Lichess community database with a win ratio of Black (56%) vs White (41%)!

Its power is in part that it creates trap against White, that takes advantage of their intended Fried Liver Attack trap against Black! White plays (6. d6), a logical looking move that reopens the light square diagonal so that White has a double attack on the f7-pawn again. This, however, is an inaccuracy and Black can capture the gambit pawn (6… Qxd6), activating the queen and now inviting White to capture the f7-pawn with their knight. White does so (7. Nxf7) and it looks like a great move as there is a fork of the queen and rook.

However, White is being drawn down Black’s plan! Now (6… Qxd6), looks like an attack an attack on White’s c4-bishop and Black naturally captures the hanging rook in the corner (8. Nxh8), but it’s a blunder! This rook was poisoned at [-9] as Black can now force capture White’s queen! You see, White’s queen on c6 wasn’t just attacking White’s c4-bishop. In fact, that was a ruse; the real target was the g2-pawn! After (8. Qxg2), the board transforms to a very similar structure to the Blackburne Shilling Gambit Trap!

In this game, White doesn’t play accurately and self-destructs by freaking out against the king – (9. Bd5?? Qxd5 10. Kf1?? Qxh1#). To be sympathetic to White, a [-9] position is completely losing whether you panic or not! If White played accurate, we have the following line: (9. Rf1 Qe4+) and White is now forced to make a choice. Either block the check with their queen and immediately lose it for Black knight (10. Qe2 Nxe2 11. Bxe2), or block the check with their bishop and immediately lose the game with smothered mate (10. Be2 Nf3#). GG!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/daily/587975845

[Event "Let's Play!"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2023.11.23"]
[Round "-"]
[White "arealeus"]
[Black "nciSquared"]
[Result "0-1"]
[CurrentPosition "r1b1kb1N/ppp3pp/5n2/4p3/3n4/8/PPPP1P1P/RNBQ1K1q w q - 0 11"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "C57"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Italian-Game-Knight-Attack-Fritz-Variation"]
[UTCDate "2023.11.23"]
[UTCTime "07:34:26"]
[WhiteElo "1156"]
[BlackElo "1290"]
[TimeControl "1/604800"]
[Termination "nciSquared won by checkmate"]
[StartTime "07:34:26"]
[EndDate "2023.12.04"]
[EndTime "06:25:15"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/daily/587975845"]
[WhiteUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/4560062.7649d75b.50x50o.650d502d7e2c.jpeg"]
[WhiteCountry "2"]
[WhiteTitle ""]
[BlackUrl "https://images.chesscomfiles.com/uploads/v1/user/75596324.be402bca.50x50o.ef3141850774.jpg"]
[BlackCountry "17"]
[BlackTitle ""]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. Ng5 {Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Knight
Attack. White is attempting the Fried Liver Attack $1} 4... d5 5. exd5 Nd4 $5
{[%c_effect d4;square;d4;type;Interesting;persistent;true] Fritz Variation $1 This
is a very interesting line, moving the queen's knight to its powerful square of
d4. Stockfish considers this an inaccuracy [+0.1 $37 +0.5] but it's the single
most winning response against the Fried Liver line at move 5 with a win ratio of
Black (56\%) to White (41\%) according to the Lichess community database of
online casual games.} 6. d6 $6 {[%c_effect
d6;square;d6;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true][%c_arrow
c2c3;keyPressed;none;from;c2;opacity;0.8;to;c3;persistent;false][%c_highlight
c3;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;c3;persistent;false] White gambits their
d-pawn to open the light square diagonal for their bishop to double attack
Black's f-pawn again, but this is inaccurate [+0.1]} 6... Qxd6 7. Nxf7 $2
{[%c_effect f7;square;f7;type;Mistake;persistent;true][%c_arrow
f7d6;keyPressed;none;from;f7;opacity;0.8;to;d6;persistent;false,f7h8;keyPressed;none;from;f7;opacity;0.8;to;h8;persistent;false][%c_highlight
d6;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d6;persistent;false,h8;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;h8;persistent;false]
It looks like White has a powerful fork, but this is a trap laid by Black within
White's own trap $1 [-4.0]} 7... Qc6 $1 {[%c_effect
c6;square;c6;type;GreatFind;persistent;true][%c_highlight
c6;keyPressed;alt;opacity;0.8;square;c6;persistent;false,c4;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;c4;persistent;false,g2;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g2;persistent;false][%c_arrow
c6c4;keyPressed;none;from;c6;opacity;0.8;to;c4;persistent;false,c6g2;keyPressed;none;from;c6;opacity;0.8;to;g2;persistent;false]
Black now gambits their h8-rook with Qc6 $1 White's material greed will likely
result in them thinking that they are trading a bishop for Black's rook.
However, the Black queen is also targeting the g2-pawn, and we end up with a
position similar to the Blackburne Shilling Gambit Trap $1} 8. Nxh8 $4 {[%c_effect
h8;square;h8;type;Blunder;persistent;true][%c_highlight
h8;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;h8;persistent;false] This rook was
poisoned as Black can force capture White's queen [-9]} 8... Qxg2 9. Bd5 $4
{[%c_effect d5;square;d5;type;Blunder;persistent;true][%c_arrow
h1f1;keyPressed;none;from;h1;opacity;0.8;to;f1;persistent;false][%c_highlight
f1;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f1;persistent;false,d5;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d5;persistent;false]
In this game, White panics as this move doesn't really make much sense [-M11]}
(9. Rf1 {What White needed to play to avoid immediately losing...} 9... Qe4+ 10.
Be2 Nf3# {[%c_arrow
e4e2;keyPressed;none;from;e4;opacity;0.8;to;e2;persistent;false,e2e1;keyPressed;none;from;e2;opacity;0.8;to;e1;persistent;false,f3e1;keyPressed;none;from;f3;opacity;0.8;to;e1;persistent;false][%c_highlight
e2;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e2;persistent;false,e1;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e1;persistent;false]
Lovely $1}) 9... Qxd5 10. Kf1 $4 {[%c_effect
f1;square;f1;type;Blunder;persistent;true][%c_highlight
f1;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f1;persistent;false] This move hangs
checkmate-in-one} 10... Qxh1# {[%c_effect
e8;square;e8;type;Winner,f1;square;f1;type;CheckmateWhite][%c_arrow
h1e1;keyPressed;none;from;h1;opacity;0.8;to;e1;persistent;false,h1g2;keyPressed;none;from;h1;opacity;0.8;to;g2;persistent;false,d4e2;keyPressed;none;from;d4;opacity;0.8;to;e2;persistent;false][%c_highlight
e1;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e1;persistent;false,f1;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;f1;persistent;false,g1;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g1;persistent;false,g2;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g2;persistent;false,e2;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;e2;persistent;false]
GG $1} 0-1