Tuesday, October 2, 2012

'Chess'ing life - Traps and Gambits



Learned a few tricks and traps from the youtube while playing a tournament in chess.com. Trying to list down and elaborate so that I can relate to them later.


1. Lasker Trap :

Lasker Trap is named after Emanuel Lasker. Basically this trap was invented by Lasker to nullify and confuse the queen's gambit played by white after the d4(white) and d5(black) move.

                                                                        So after white plays his queen's gambit, black avoids it and plays e5. It's a great move, and lot of time white will not be ready to see such a counter attack and play a bad move. So play can resume from here when the d4 pawn capturing e5, and black is going to respond by advancing d5 pawn to d4. Now the mistake from white is going to be pawn to e3. he will obviously think that black is going to capture the pawn on e3 and hence he can exchange the queen and prevent black from castling. But that is not going to happen. Black is going to continue with the Lasker trap and that is moving the bishop to b4 and checking the white king. White is going to bring his bishop and prevent the check as well as challenge the bishop checking the king. Now the pawn on d4 will capture the pawn on e3. The bishop sitting in front the queen cannot capture the pawn as it is preventing the check from black's bishop. So from here, White can do even bigger mistake to capture the unsupported Bishop attacking the king thinking that he can gain more material advantage, but he's going to be mistakenly wrong. The e3 pawn of black in response will continue to capture f2 pawn, thus making a check by pawn and also threatening the knight on g1. Now here, white king cannot simply take this pawn by his king because then the queen will be unprotected and black's queen can easily capture it. So white will have to sacrifice its knight and move its king to e2. From here, I will play my own variation (Other than what's been said in the youtube). I will move my bishop to g4, check the king and produce a fork where by avoiding the check, white exposes his queen and completing the fork, black wins the white king.

It's a really good trap. I have often seen people come up with the queen's gambit without even knowing how to use the extra space gained. So if facing a beginner player using the queen's gambit, one can always use this trap. 

2. Smith-Morra Gambit :

This gambit is a response to black's answer of Sicilian defense to white's king's pawn move(e4). personally, I've always hated Sicilian defense. For a person like me, who more or less always plays e4 and gets a Sicilian in response, this gambit can be a good answer to it. The Smith-Morra gambit takes black out of any thoughts he developed of playing about, with his Sicilian defense.

                                                       So in response to white's e4, black goes into Sicilian and plays c5. And from here, white's going to play d4, and after black captures on d4 from c5, white is going to offer up another pawn on c3. And after black captures the pawn on c3, white is going to recapture the pawn with his knight on c3. This is the Smith-Morra Gambit. White has given up two pawns while black has given only one pawn. But also, white has one center pawn developed and a knight supporting it and at the same time developed nicely and guarding the central part.

3. Mortimer Trap :

The Mortimer Trap can be developed when black plays Berlin defense in response to white's Ruy-Lopez opening. After e4-e5, Nf3-Nc6, Bb5(white-playing the Ruy-Lopez opening), black goes into Berlin defense by Nf6. Now here comes the Mortimer trap. After Black's last knight move, if white delays his castling and continues to defend on the central pawn by playing d3, black has an opportunity to play the Mortimer Trap.

                                         So after white plays d3, black plays knight to e2, basically giving up the pawn on e5 as a trap. So white will take the pawn on e5 with his knight on f3. Then black can simply play pawn to c6 attacking the white bishop. Now it doesn't matter if the white moves his bishop to c4 or a4 to avoid the threat from the black pawn on c6, in the next move, the black queen will move to a5, check the white king as well as forking the unprotected white knight at e5. This, precisely is the Mortimer Trap.

                             Now, how to avoid a Mortimer Trap. After black plays his pawn to threaten the Bishop on b5, white's best move is to simply bring his knight to c4, thus preventing the black queen to come to a5 and check the king. A lot of people will say, yeah...he's going to lose his bishop anyway, but it's not that easy. If black captures the bishop on b5 with his pawn, white brings his knight to d6. Check mate. So to avoid the check mate, black needs to open his pawn to d6, avoiding the check-mate and still attacking the bishop. Now to avoid the attack, white's only move is bishop to a4. And now black can simply move his pawn to b5, thus attacking both knight and bishop with one single pawn.  

4. Marshal Trap :

Marshal Trap is played in the lines of Petrov defense. I am not going to elaborate this one as it takes a lot of moves first up to form this trap. Basically, the trap comes from black when white tries to put pressure on the E file with his rook after castling king side. Black pins down white's knight in front of the queen. Now when white plays the rook move, thus making a mistake of not playing his other knight to put pressure on the black knight, black can play this trap. White sacrifices his bishop to get captured by king, black knight captures pawn on f2 attacking both white queen and bishop. From here on the capturing will continue until black moves his queen to check and at the same time pin the white rook.

5. Kieninger Trap :

Again, I am not going to elaborate this one. Just that, it's played by black while playing the Budapest gambit in response to white's d4. After d4-Nf6, c4-e5(Budapest Gambit), and when white pawn takes this gambit, black knight comes to g4 attacking the pawn. From here on white tries to hold on to its unsupported pawn and tries to support it with Bf4, which is counterattacked by black with Nc6. White then plays Nf3 adding more pressure on the pawn on e5. From here on black brings his bishop to check on white king, white guards the check with his knight to d2. And then black moves his queen to d7. Now white's obvious move here will be to threaten the black bishop so he moves his pawn to a3. But black avoids that threat and takes the pawn at e5 because it has been attacked by black with three pieces in response to black's only two. Now here comes the tragedy from white. White obviously notices the three-to-two support on the pawn he has lost and lets it go, but instead he captures the bishop he has been threatening. From here, the black knight on e5 can come to d3, unexpectedly, and check-mate. The pawn on e2 cannot capture it as the king is sitting straight, guarding the E file. So there you go, a check-mate with the Kieninger Trap.

6. Legal Trap : 

This trap is named after the french chess player Sire de Legal. It basically sacrifices the white queen in order to mate the black king. Game starts with a common Italian opening but white moves its bishop to c4 to attack the pawn on f7. From here if black plays the d6 and transposes into a Philidor defense, white continues its piece development by Nc3. Now here comes the legal tap when black plays Bishop to g4 thus pinning down the knight in front of the queen. White plays pawn to h3, thus attacking the bishop which was pinning down the knight in front of the queen. Bishop goes back to h5, but white plays the Legal trap by playing Knight takes c5 pawn, thus making a way for black to capture his queen, White bishop takes f7 pawn check, king to e7, knight to d5. Check mate. There goes the Legal Trap. Offering up the queen to get a mate.

7. Fishing Pole Trap :

And this is perhaps the most dangerous traps of all. Game starts with a normal Ruy-Lopez opening. And after white castles king side, black knight simply moves to g4, applying a lot of pressure on h2 and f2. So one of the common moves by white will be pawn to h3, thus attacking the knight. Now here comes the fishing pole trap. Black simply plays h5, thus willing to sacrifice his knight. So once this capturing takes place, the H file becomes open for rook. Not only that, the pawn which captures the pawn which captured the knight, is now threatening the white knight. For white, it will become worse if he decides to move his knight now. Within two to three moves, it's a check mate for black.

8. Blackburne Schilling Trap :

This trap comes from the Italian opening. Instead of developing like normal, Black moves his knight twice from Nc6 to Nd4, thus providing an opportunity for the white knight Nf3 to capture the pawn at e5. Black answers this capture with queen to g5, attacking both knight and the g2 pawn. Now a lot of times, white would like to bring Ne5 to Nf7, pinning rook and the queen. Now black won't be able to capture this knight, because it would be supported by Bb4, so what black is going to do, is to take up the pawn at g2. White will move his rook to f1, not to get attacked, but black queen will capture the pawn at e4, and give a check. White has two moves, queen to g2, which we can take with our knight, or Bishop to e2. And from here black can continue his attack by bringing his knight to f3. Check mate.

As described, it is very much clear, that white will lose material, no matter what he does. It's just a matter of how much.

9.  Siberian Trap :

Special case. If and only if white moves his queen to e2, black threatens the queen as well as gets ready to check mate on the king side with queen supported by his knight.

10. Halosar Trap :

This is the most interesting trap I've seen. And that's why, I am going to elaborate this one a bit. Also, Halosar Trap depends on the Blackmar Diemer Gambit and more importantly the Ryder Gambit. So you'll learn both on the way you see the Halosar trap.

                     So after d4-d5, black plays e4 which is king's gambit. Black accepts the gambit. So white plays the Nc3. In response, white plays Nf6 to defend the pawn on e4. From here white is going to move pawn to f3 offering another pawn hoping for something big. Black captures the pawn and white goes into Ryder Gambit by taking up the piece with his queen. And this allows the black queen to come to d4 and capture the unprotected pawn. Now white is down with two material but black has fallen into something that is called the Halosar Trap.

From here white is going to play Bishop to e3, attacking the black queen which has to go somewhere. And lot of time he will move his queen to b4, trying to attack the pawn at b2. White castles queen-side, astonishingly, so black brings his bishop to g4, thus pinning down the queen in front of the rook. But white continues in his plan and moves Knight to b6. Now if black is really a novice, and captures white queen, he's going to lose the game because white's next move is Nc7 and that's check mate.

What Black can do, is to bring his Knight to a6, thus guarding the c7 pawn. White queen can take the pawn at b7, at the same time attacking the pawn at c7.If black tries something fancy in the next move, white knight can take the pawn at c7 and it's a check to the black king, and as well as a discovered attack on the black queen by white queen. So one way or the other, it's a mate for black.    
    





 

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