Opening traps

A piece is not only lost by being captured — it can be shut in. Here the white bishop goes pawn-hunting, gets pushed back twice, and ends up in a corner where the black pawns take away its squares one at a time — hence the name, the pawns closing around it like an ark. The lesson is a habit worth forming: before sending a piece deep into enemy territory, count the squares it can come back to.

• piece-piegee
• ouverture
• espagnole

C71

⚠️ This trap is unsound, and that has to be said. 3...Nd4 is objectively bad: against 4.Nxd4 or 4.O-O Black is simply worse. It only works against a greedy opponent who grabs the e5 pawn. It is here for two reasons: the final mate is a beautiful pattern, and the real lesson fits in one sentence — in the opening, a free pawn is nearly always a hook. Notice too why it is mate: the bishop that could save White is pinned.

• mat
• ouverture
• piege

C50

A real sacrifice, not a swindle: White gives up a knight to drag the black king into the middle of the board. Be honest about what it is worth — modern theory says Black survives with precise defence, which is exactly what a beginner cannot produce. So it is a practical weapon, not a refutation. The answer comes one move earlier: instead of recapturing on d5, play Na5. This is the attraction motif from course 3, in a real opening.

• sacrifice
• attraction
• ouverture

C57

Black pins the f3 knight and assumes the white queen is stuck. She isn't: White moves the knight anyway, lets the queen go, and mates two moves later with three minor pieces. The most famous trap in chess — and a lesson about development far more than about greed.

• mat
• clouage
• ouverture

C41

Six moves and it is over — in an opening plenty of beginners really play. It all hangs on one quiet move: the queen goes to e2 behind her own knight and waits. When the knight steps to d6 it gives check and uncovers the queen, which pins the e7 pawn: that pawn therefore cannot capture the knight, and the king is smothered by his own pieces. The answer is a single move — Ndf6 instead of Ngf6. This is the smothered mate from course 2, made possible by the pin from course 3.

• mat
• mat-etouffe
• clouage
• ouverture

B17

The trap every beginner meets once. It works exactly once — and here is how it never works on you again. The lesson is not the trap, it is the answer to it: when your opponent threatens mate, you deal with the threat before you develop. It is also the perfect illustration of "Don't bring the queen out early" from course 1: after the refutation White's queen is badly placed and Black develops by chasing her.

• mat
• ouverture

C23

The clearest illustration on the whole site of the difference between an absolute and a relative pin — and it is a trap for WHITE, which is rarer and more useful. The bishop on g5 pins the f6 knight against the queen. Against the queen, not the king: so the knight may move, and here it must. White grabs a pawn believing the knight is paralysed and ends up a piece down. Read "The pin" in course 3 before this one.

• clouage
• ouverture
• gambit-dame

D51