Let's play the Traxler Counterattack!
Let's learn the Traxler Counterattack! It's a cold, evil, vicious response to the Fried Liver Attack. It's so poisonous, that I... well I don't even know what to say. I really just want to jump right in and show you. First up, pawn to e5.
White attacked our pawn, knight to c6 defending it. Standard stuff.
We now invite the Fried Liver Attack with knight to f6.
And yep, White's going for the Fried Liver Attack—a sneaky opening where they dive straight for our weak f7 pawn. White might even think they already have a winning position, with the knight coming to f7 on the next move forking our queen and rook. Here, we COMPLETELY IGNORE that threat and play bishop to c5, pretending that we've blundered.
White fell for the bait. They think they've successfully forked our rook and queen, and believe they're winning the game. But here, we redirect lighting. Bishop takes f2 check.
We have sacrificed our bishop, and our queen/rook are forked. The good news: we have a necessary check on the exposed White king. Knight to e4.
White's king is brave, coming into the center. Queen to h4 to defend our knight.
OMG what a BLUNDER. Mate in 4. Move 1: Queen to f4.
Move 2: Knight to b4.
Move 3: Queen to f2. Checkmate.
Sheesh.
Move 2: Queen to f2.
Move 3: Knight to c5.
Move 4: queen to d4
You're playing like Magnus
This is completely losing for White. Queen to h4 check.
A very common Traxler idea: Knight takes on g3.
Now we get the rook with check. Yum. Queen to h1.
Let's add a knight to this party! Knight to d4 check.
Can you find the best move? There's a free queen on d1 for our queen to take!
Look at white's queenside! It's the exact starting position, except the White queen has turned black.
White didn't take the bait, bringing us to the declined variation. Don't worry, we still have winning chances. Now, our queen is ACTUALLY under attack so we have to move it to the only safe square: queen to e7.
We need to open up our bishop: pawn to d5. This is a very common traxler idea.
Blunder! We have the amazing bishop to g4, actually just trapping their queen. No, seriously, their queen has nowhere to go.
Bishop takes queen on d1 of course.
Game is as good as over.
Our knight is under attack. Now we want to hop it into the center. Knight to d4.
This is white's most common move, and its actually VERY bad. All their advantage is lost. However, only one move wins for us: Bishop to g4 attacking the queen.
One more time, we only have one move that wins: Knight back to d7 to block check.
We're literally down 9 points of material, but let's keep going. Queen to f6, threatening a discovered check against white's king.
Do NOT capture back, as we lose the threat of discovered check. Instead, keep our queen on the f-file with Queen to f4.
Well done! We're down TEN points of material but our attack is so strong that Black wins 90% of the time here. I have never seen anything like it.