This is a trick opening that Black uses sometimes. It is not a very good opening as long as
White knows how to deal with it, so I don't recommend it for Black. However, if you are White,
you should be aware of it so that you don't fall into the trap if Black plays it against you.
A normal opening so far... | |||||||||||||
This takes the guard off black's e5 pawn. At this point, Black (rather naughtily) whispers to himself (just loud enough for White to overhear) "Oh my God", as if he had made a mistake taking the guard off his e5 pawn. [Hence the name of the trap!]. | |||||||||||||
Here White falls for the trap and takes the pawn. Black then brings his queen out. This threatens the White knight and White's g pawn but it also leaves a further trap as Black's f pawn now looks weak. | |||||||||||||
White gets drawn further in. He takes Black's f pawn thinking he is forking both the Black queen and the Black rook. Black then takes White's g pawn. | |||||||||||||
White begins to realise how serious it is but he still thinks he can defend. He moves his rook, which is being attacked, next to his king. Black's queen now takes the e pawn with check. White sees that if he puts his queen in the way at e2 it will be taken by Black's knight. So he puts his bishop in the way. | |||||||||||||
Black now completes the trap with a nice little knight to f3 checkmate! The bishop can't take the knight because then the king would be in check from Black's queen. |
In this trap, Black tricked white into moving his pieces away from the King,
which left the king too exposed.
To see how we tried to make use of this to catch the ice smugglers on Phobos
you will need to buy the book!
If you're wondering what White should do, he should take the knight on d4 at move 4, not the pawn on e5. Then Black will have to recapture with his e pawn. This will leave Black with a weak pawn on d4 and White well ahead in the development.
Happy Chess playing.