The Fried Liver Attack

Boris Alterman writes: "This Sunday I am going to start a two-part lecture on the Two Knights Defence. Part one will be on the 'Fried Liver attack'.

There is no doubt that the Two Knights Defense is one of the oldest openings we know. It is also one of the most complicated tactical ones. David Bronstein suggested that this opening should rightly be called the 'Chigorin Counter Attack', since, at the end of the last century, the legendary Russian chess player added a great deal to the theory of this opening.

Great credit for developing the theory and practice of this opening must go to the old masters Steinitz, Chigorin and of course Dr Tarrasch (who said that 4.Ng5 is a move of novice player). If White invites complications with either 4 Ng5 (well known as the Fried Liver Attack) or 4 d4, the Morphy attack, we reach extremely sharp positions where gambit themes exist everywhere.

Anyone who enters the dark territory of the Two Knights Defense must be well prepared for the amazing complications that ensue."

GM Boris Alterman is 34, and lives in Israel. He was born in Kharkov, Ukraine, where he started playing chess at the age of 7. His career highlights include earning the IM title in 1991 and the GM title in 1992.He is the winner of the following Open and GM tournaments: Haifa 1993; Bad Homburg 1996; Rishon LeZion 1996; Beijing 1995 and 1997; Munchen 1992. His hobbies include computers and swimming, his favourite food is Chinese, he speaks fluent Russian, Hebrew and English.

Boris has worked for and against Garry Kasparov. In 1999 he assisted the world champion in his spectacular Microsoft match Kasparov vs The World, and was also part of the team that built up the web portal Kasparov Chess. In 2003, on the other hand, he was part of the Deep Junior team that gave Kasparov a run for his money in the New York match.

Boris Alterman will hold his lectures on Sundays at 21:00h Server time and a simultaneous exhibition on Mondays at 21:00h server time (in the "Simultaneous Exhibitions" room).

Here are the world-wide starting times for Alterman's lectures.
The simuls are at the same times one day later.