Responses or traps from this position?

I often find myself in this position; my knight (F3) under attack/threat by opponents bishop (G4). Does anyone know any cool traps or good responses to this position? Any thoughts on preventing this for occuring?

Before anyone chastises me for not doing it myself; I am analyzing my games and working hard on this particular position. I'm just asking for other, more experienced perspectives.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Nietzsche_Keen,

Yeah, the nasty pin on the queen, I know what you mean, quite anoying. The most common way to break the pin is to move your light squared bishop to e2. In the  position above it's a little problem because you've already committed that bishop to b5.

Moving the queen is not a good option because the trade destoys the castling position, as you demonstrated.

To  prevent this pin in advance it's possible to play h3. But that's not ideal because it takes away precious time in the opening which you can spend better in the most cases developing your pieces.

As you're asking for traps, here's the most famous. It's called "Legal's Mate". Legal was the teacher of Philidor, one of the founder of modern chess in the 18th century.

If Black's bishop is not protected and you've got your king's knight and bishop ready you may eat the f7 pawn using such kind of combination:

So far, so good, main rule: Don't panic! If he takes your knight he's giving away his bishop pair, so just try to protect the squares the knight covers with another piece and look forward to the game. 

Hope my remarks are helpful.

Cheers,

Spielkalb

Third variation, much more common as a trap in some openings:

NICE!!!  Thank you for taking to time to post such a thorough and thoughful reply! It's very enlightening. Love the legal trap... I will play around with all the variations.

Thanks again!

You're welcome, glad to be of assistance!

I had to correct the moves in Legal's Mate slightly. You have to push Black's bishop with h3 first, otherwise he can simply take your knight and protects his bishop. If you push the bishop first you've got a  backup plan if he doesn't take your queen, see the variation.

Have fun with it, especially with the third variation because that's the most common one, I suppose.

Oops, yes, you're right. My construction is faulty but the idea behind is clear, I hope.

I got the general idea, thanks. I've learned that, for me at least, it does no good to remember moves; it's best to remember concepts.

True. I came up with another one, similar to #2, but exploiting the double attack of knight and queen on the oponent's bishop, even if he's covered by his own knight:

This is something I worked out during my lunch. I didn't look to see if it makes white any worse off, but the two sides wind up about even. Not necessarily a good plan, just something I was toying around with. It does seem to reduce blacks lead in development ever so slightly.

Oh, I see. Hmmm...