Opening traps every club player should know

Most opening traps work for the same reason: one side makes a natural-looking move without checking what the opponent threatens. Knowing the classic traps helps in two ways. You will spot them when they are set for you, and you will recognise the patterns behind them, which turn up in many other positions. Here are six short examples.

1. Scholar’s mate

The best-known trap of all aims at f7: 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Qh5 Nf6?? 4.Qxf7#. Black developed a knight and attacked the queen, but forgot that f7 was attacked twice and defended only by the king.

The defence is easy once you see the threat. After 3.Qh5, 3…g6 blocks the queen’s path to f7, while 3…Qe7 defends both f7 and e5. After 3…g6 4.Qf3 Nf6 the f-file is closed as well, and White’s queen has moved twice while Black develops with gain of time. An early queen raid is not dangerous if you meet it calmly; more often it ends with the queen being chased around the board.

2. Légal’s trap

This one punishes a player who trusts a pin too much: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 Bg4 4.Nc3 g6? 5.Nxe5! White seems to drop the queen, since the knight on f3 was pinned. But after 5…Bxd1?? 6.Bxf7+ Ke7 7.Nd5# White’s three minor pieces deliver mate.

Black can limit the damage with 5…dxe5 6.Qxg4, losing a pawn instead of the game. The lesson is that a pin against the queen is not a pin against the king: the pinned piece may still move if what it gains is worth more than the queen. The position arises from the Philidor Defence, so it is worth knowing with either colour.

3. The Fried Liver after a careless move

In the Two Knights Defence, after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5, the natural recapture 5…Nxd5? invites 6.Nxf7! Kxf7 7.Qf3+ Ke6 8.Nc3. The knight on d5 is pinned against the king by the c4-bishop, White piles up on it with the queen and knight, and the black king is stranded on e6. Exact defence exists, but in a real game it is a miserable position to hold.

The cure is to know the right move in advance: 5…Na5, attacking the bishop, is the main line and gives Black good play for the pawn.

4. The Englund Gambit trap

The Englund Gambit, 1.d4 e5, is objectively dubious, but it hides a nasty trap: 1.d4 e5 2.dxe5 Nc6 3.Nf3 Qe7 4.Bf4 Qb4+ 5.Bd2? Qxb2 6.Bc3 Bb4! 7.Qd2 Bxc3 8.Qxc3?? Qc1#. The check on b4 picks up the b2-pawn, the bishop on c3 is pinned against the king, and when White’s queen recaptures on c3 it leaves the back rank undefended.

White can avoid all of this with a calm developing move at move four, such as 4.Nc3, which keeps the queen’s bishop at home guarding b2.

5. The Blackburne Shilling Gambit

After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4, the odd-looking 3…Nd4 leaves e5 hanging on purpose. If White grabs it, Black can mate quickly: 4.Nxe5? Qg5! 5.Nxf7? Qxg2 6.Rf1 Qxe4+ 7.Be2 Nf3#. White’s king is boxed in by its own pieces, and the bishop on e2 cannot take the knight because it is pinned by the queen on e4.

White does not need anything clever here. 4.Nxd4 exd4 5.O-O leaves Black with an awkward pawn on d4, no lead in development and nothing to show for it. 3…Nd4 is a trick, not a sound opening.

6. The Kieninger trap in the Budapest

In the Budapest Gambit Black gives up a pawn and aims to win it back: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4 4.Bf4 Nc6 5.Nf3 Bb4+ 6.Nbd2 Qe7 7.a3 Ngxe5. Taking the bishop looks like winning a piece, but 8.axb4?? Nd3# is mate. The e2-pawn cannot capture because it is pinned by the queen on e7, and every other square around the white king is occupied by White’s own pieces.

The correct move is 8.Nxe5 Nxe5 9.e3, and the game goes on normally.

The lessons behind the traps

• Develop your pieces. A position with knights and bishops out and the king castled offers few targets. Early queen raids and wasted pawn moves cost time that the opponent can use.
• Look after your king. f7 and f2 are weak in the opening because only the king defends them, and a king surrounded by its own pieces can be mated by a single check.
• Don’t grab material blindly. In Légal’s trap, the Englund trap, the Blackburne Shilling and the Kieninger trap, the decisive mistake was a capture. Before taking, ask what your opponent gets in return.
• Check the forcing moves. A quick look at your opponent’s checks, captures and threats would have prevented every mate in this article.

Traps are easier to avoid when the opening is familiar. On TheoryChess you can play the Two Knights Defence, the Englund Gambit, the Budapest Gambit and the rest of the openings catalogue against Stockfish, with an explanation for each theory move, then test yourself with a quiz such as the Two Knights quiz. If you suspect you keep falling into the same patterns, the game reports show where your own games left theory.