The Budapest Defence is a chess opening that starts with the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5. This is one of the rare gambit lines for Black, because almost all of the gambit lines are for White. It is rarely played at grandmaster level, but for the amateur it may be a nice way to immediately attack White’s centre. During most games the sacrificed pawn will be given back, because the alternatives are giving Black a nice advantage in the development of his pieces.

In this lesson we will focus on showing the Kieninger trap, which is one of the reasons to play the Budapest gambit at all. In addition the most important variations of the Budapest gambit are shown.
Liked this game? You will probably like the Immortal Game even more, but first we will have a look at the Mortimer Trap.

Noah’s Ark Trap is not just an opening trap. The name is used for a lot of openings in which the white bishop is trapped on b3 by black pawns. Most of the games that contain this trap can be found in the Ruy Lopez.
More chess lessons? The next lesson in this series is about the game Morphy – Isouard (1958).

Original 3 responses on CTL to “Noah’s Ark Trap”

1. 
   GMNightmare
   December 18th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
   I’m sorry, but your analysis as “1…c5 2.Bb5 Not a very good move.” is incorrect. Just because you believe it’s not, or that many play the game wrong from that point, does not make it a bad move. In fact, even 5.d4 was not a bad move. The bad move was move 8, Qxd4, and that is it. Nothing dictates that white must take back right away, playing a5 would be a valid line of play eventually leading to a resume in equal material, with white leading on development for your greed of trying to take an easy win, playing a trap, and white not falling for it.
2. 
   Chess Teacher
   December 19th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
   @ GMNightmare
   I agree with most of your comment, but I still shouldn’t play 2.Bb5, because I think that White has better moves. I don’t consider this move as a blunder after which the game will be lost. A blunder will be indicated by two question marks as you can find after the 8.Qxd4 move. I even don’t consider it as a bad move (indicated by a ?) or as a dubious move (?!), but I still advice to play other moves.
   The main purpose of this article was to show some examples of Noah’s Ark Trap in different openings.
3. 
   chimeric bliss
   March 17th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
   i completely agree, its not a matter of bad moves, its the strategy. QxD4 is enabling black to trap that pawn. the best move for white there would be Bd5. it takes away blacks ability to trap and puts pressure on blacks rook and eventually his queen.

As a kind of followup on the lesson about the minor promotion I have added this lesson on the Lasker Trap in the Albin Countergambit. The underpromotion plays an important role in this trap and probably contributes to the success of it.

The Albin Countergambit starts with the moves 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e5 after which we can find the following position on the board.

The best option is to accept the gambit 3.dxe5 after which black probably continues with 3…d4. If White continues with 4.e3? he’ll find himself in deep trouble.

The Elephant Trap is a famous trap in the Queen’s Gambit Declined. I am not sure why it is called the Elephant Trap, but the name reminds me to an oil painting of Eddie William Powell. The picture above shows a part of this painting. More information about this and other paintings of this artist can be found at this website.


Another interesting trap is the Lasker Trap, but for now we continue with explaining some of the more difficult Chess Notation Symbols.

Learning a chess opening has to include that you know what to do if someone isn’t playing the right moves. Opening traps and miniatures are very illustrative and help us to increase our knowledge about an opening.
As a follow-up on the lesson about the Scotch game this post will show a combination of some miniatures of this Scotch game. These games are often called traps, but a trap is in fact a game that is won as a result of playing a dubieus move. In the following miniatures Black makes a mistake and White knows how to deal with this.

The main game is a game between Magem and Fernandez in the Spain championship, but I have merged three other miniatures with this game.
Some nice miniatures worth replaying.

The next lesson is about getting a draw.

Original 6 Responses to “Some very short Scotch games”

1. 
   Rook Van Winkle
   August 23rd, 2007 at 3:13 pm
   When I first started playing chess (at the age of 9 or 10) the Scotch Game was one of my favorite openings – not for any practical reason really, but be because of the name ‘Scotch’ – although a native born American I am of mostly Scottish decent. Not necessarily a great reason for picking a favorite opening – but, hey, you have to start somewhere. 
   It makes me wonder if Edwin "dutchdefence" Meyer, who is Dutch (and BTW has a superb blog at http://dutchdefence.wordpress.com) has picked the Dutch Defence as his favorite opening?
   Visit the Rook Van Winkle Chess Blog – “A chess blog of general interest for beginning and novice chess players on the benefits of playing and enjoying the game of chess, with a special focus on middle-aged (and older) players.”
2. 
   Tom Chivers
   August 28th, 2007 at 11:26 am
   Aren’t there some traps for white to fall into?!
   Having to face the Scotch was one of the reasons I gave up 1…e5.
3. 
   Chess Teacher
   August 28th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
   Of course there are traps for white to fall into.
   Take for example the game between Vasily Panasenko and Dmitry Shulzhenko (Kiev, 2005):
   1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.b3 Qf6 7.c3 Qxf2# 0-1
   OK, it is a kind of blunder, but the mate shows one of the possibilities for Black.
   Black can even better immediately play 5…Qf6 and if White defends by 6.Qd2 Black’s best move is 6…dxc6
   This is a position in which most threaths are targeted at the White side.
4. 
   mistermac
   September 22nd, 2007 at 6:22 am
   Very interesting article on the Scotch. Thank you.
5. 
   Scotch enprise
   September 22nd, 2007 at 8:50 pm
   I do not see why 6.Nd4 is 1-0 !?
   Please explain this-thanks
6. 
   Chess Teacher
   September 23rd, 2007 at 2:57 pm
   @ Scotch enprise
   After 5.Nxc6 Black plays the move 5…Qh4, probably because of 6…Qxf2#.
   But White’s response to this move is 6.Nd4 which deals with this mate threath and brings the Knight to a safe place. Now White is a piece ahead and Black has no compensation whatsoever. Depending on White’s playing strength this should be enough for White to win the game.

The Blackburne Shilling Gambit is the name of the chess opening (or in fact a trap in the Italian game) that begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4?!
It is also referred to as the Kosti? Gambit after the Serbian grandmaster Borislav Kosti?, who played it in the early 20th century. According to our rules for the opening Black’s third move has to be a bad move. The checkmate is rather nice.

The next chess lesson is about the opposition.

Original responses on CTL to “A trap in the Italian game”

1. 
   Karl Andreas Wig
   August 19th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
   I love it! Aah, Queen and Knight working together is just gold. Give us more traps!
2. 
   ilredeire
   September 6th, 2007 at 11:53 am
   So my opponent are trying to mate me with this trick!
   LOL
3. 
   John
   January 20th, 2008 at 8:38 am
   I notice a lot more players have been trying this against me. For fun I’ve been playing the Bxf7+ line, very fun. Get the 2 pawns for steamrolling and an exposed enemy king. Tournaments I just take N.
   FYI, for fun I’ve been playing the Nxf7 line of the Petroff for the same reasons.
4. 
   Norak
   March 9th, 2008 at 7:34 am
   What about
   5.Bxf7+ Ke7
   6. Bd5
   and this prevent Black’s queen from taking the e4 pawn?
5. 
   Chess Teacher
   March 9th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
   @Norak
   After 5.Bxf7+ Ke7
   6.Bd5
   Black first takes the g-pawn
   6…Qxg2
   White has to move the Rook to f1 and Black will play d6 so that Black has to move the Knight from e5.
   7.Rf1 d6 8.Nc4
   Then
   8…Nf3+ followed by something like 9.Ke2 Nxh2 10.Ne3

You have to know some of the checkmates in order to know what you are looking for when playing a chess game. Some of these basic checkmates even have a name. By studying this kind of diagrams you may be able to avoid or to make use of similar positions during your own games.

King and Queen checkmates




King and Rook checkmates




Back rank checkmate

Many beginners often oversee this kind of Mate. You have to pay attention to this kind of mate opportunities when you run into this kind of positions. To prevent being mated like this it may be a good idea to have an escape square for the king.

Scholar’s Mate is the most common opening trap a beginner falls into. In this checkmate both the Bishop and Queen attack the weak f7 pawn. This pawn is weak because, in the starting position, it is only protected by the King

In the epaulette mate the King is on its back rank and the Rooks of its own color on either side are blocking off the king’s escape route. But for the mating pattern it doens’t matter if other pieces then Rooks are involved, as long as they are of the same color.

According to Wikipedia scholar's mate is the checkmate which occurs after the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Qxf7#. The moves may be played in a different order or with slight variations, but the basic idea – the queen and bishop combining in an attack on f7.
Just let's have a look at some of these variations and how we can avoid this mate.


OK, now that we have seen these variations of the Scholar's Mate and some of the rather easy defences try to avoid these traps as much as possible in the future.

The Fried Liver Attack is far more interesting opening to play.