What are some common chess traps?

Question

What are some of the most common traps to be aware of?

I am talking about examples such as

• The Fishing Pole Trap

• The Lasker Trap in the Albin Counter Gambit

• The Rubinstein Trap in the Queen's Gambit Declined

• The Noah's Ark Trap in the Ruy Lopez

While such traps are easy to avoid in long games, they can come up and be quite effective in bullet games.

Answer 1

One sort of not-always-obvious trap that players can fall into are pawn forks that aren't immediately apparent in a given position. For instance:

[FEN ""]

1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 Bc5 4.e3 Nc6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Nge2 Be6 $2 7.d4 $1

Here White wins material since 7. d4! gains time against the bishop on c5, and can then push on to d5. I've actually won with this exact tactic in more than one OTB tournament game, even against A-class players; and in internet blitz it's happened countless times. If you're not used to playing the black side here, I think it can be easy to miss the shot before you let go of the bishop on e6. This same kind of scenario can arise in other positions with a lot of centrally-located minor pieces.

Answer 2

I can also think of the Légal Trap in the Italian Game or Philidor Defense (Black's 2^nd and 3^rd moves may be transposed). It involves a Queen sacrifice:

[FEN ""]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 d6 4.Nc3 Bg4 5.h3 Bh5 $2 6.Nxe5 $1 Bxd1 $4 7.Bxf7+ Ke7 8.Nd5#

Wikipedia has a list of common chess traps, though it's not exhaustive:

Ordered by chess opening:

• Albin Countergambit – Lasker Trap
• Blackmar-Diemer Gambit – Halosar Trap
• Bogo-Indian Defence – Monticelli Trap
• Budapest Gambit – Kieninger Trap
• Italian Game – Blackburne Shilling Gambit
• Petrov's Defence – Marshall Trap
• Philidor Defence – Légal Trap
• Queen's Gambit Declined – Elephant Trap, Rubinstein Trap
• Ruy Lopez – Mortimer Trap, Noah's Ark Trap, Tarrasch Trap, Rombaua Trap
• Sicilian Defence – Magnus Smith Trap, Siberian Trap
• Vienna Gambit – Würzburger Trap

Many more opening traps, all ending in checkmate, are given under Checkmates in the opening.

Also, chess.com's blog has a post about traps, which includes some which Wikipedia doesn't (like the Fischer Trap), and you can play through them on that page.

Answer 3

I've won quite a few games in this line of Cambridge Springs in blitz.

[FEN ""]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Nf3 c6 5. Bg5 Nbd7 6. e3 Qa5 7. Bd3 Ne4 8. Qc2
Nxg5 9. Nxg5 dxc4

And black is winning a piece since, knight on g5 and Bishop on d3 are both attacked.

Notes:

1)7. Bd3 looks logical, but it not the best move (though it is not losing). Main-line moves are: 7. Nd2 and 7. cxd5.

2)8. Qc2 looks logical, it protects the knight on c3 and attacks the black knight on e4; however, this move loses a piece. Better for white is 8. Bxe4 dxe4 9. Ne5 with roughly equal position.

Answer 4

I have noticed that new players who learn opening principles like "don't move the same piece more than one time", "concentrate on the center" often fall into the trap of blindly following these general principles and totally overlook simple tactical threats. A typical blunder example:

[FEN ""]

1.e4 Nc6 2.d4 e5 3.d5 Nd4?? 4.c3

Black is toast because the knight is trapped.

Answer 5

There are several traps in the Ponziani, e.g. leaving the pawn on e4 unprotected, and if the knight takes it, Qa4+ is winning the knight. Or pushing the d-pawn threatening the knight: If it goes forward instead of b8 or e7, it's lost.

Answer 6

Videos on many of traps can be found at http://www.thechesswebsite.com/chess-traps/index.php

Answer 7

There are 40 traps from wikipedia in an expandable chess openings tree at http://www.chesstree.net