Some Insight on Trapped Pieces

Hello Guys! This is the first article I've ever created, and I hope you like it. 

   One of the most annoying things that can happen to you in a game is having one of your pieces trapped. By trapped I mean having no way to bait the opponent into letting the piece free, or being able to extract the piece, but to one's harm. The first example game was a blitz game I played a few weeks ago. The game involved inaccurate play from both sides, but at one point an astonishing event occurs:

The Rook gets trapped, but White had many chances to save it. Unfortunately for my opponent, they missed these shots. That was an interesting introduction, but now we move on to the essence of trapping pieces: Imagination and Calculation. Without these two skills, one can't hope to play a great game of chess, not even trap a piece (unless the opponent does it for him).

  Here are some elementary examples of trapped pieces, which I've put in puzzle form for you to enjoy:

This simple example can be found hundreds of times in endgames and middlegames. The idea is cornering the Knight on the edge of the board, and then trapping it by placing the Bishop on the third square in front of the Knight. The Black King walks in and devours the Knight. Here's another form of the trap (Only the Knight can be trapped with this and the next setup):

When the Knight is located in the corner, the Bishop still has to be on the third square in front of the Knight to trap it. The White King then can come in and take the knight. The next example still has the Bishop as the trapping piece, but it uses a Pawn's help to trap a Rook:

In this scenario, we see the Rook being forced into the trap. If the Black King tries to help the Rook sacrifice itself, the White King can infiltrate and capture the Black Pawns. Note that if the White King was on g1 or h1, the trap wouldn't work, as after a7, Rd1+ Kh2 Ra1! saves the game. Now we move on to some middlegame and opening positions where the traps are more exciting to observe:

In this example, the first move was a bit challenging to find, but if you know you're goal is setting up a trap, the move is obvious. This theme is common in the Italian, which is a common opening found over all levels of play. The dark-squared Bishop falls prey to an effective queenside pawn storm.

This simple trap is found in many beginner games in Alekhine's Defense. The Knight gets kicked around and eventually trapped and captured. The most important move of the combination is the move right after Ne4 (did you think I was going to tell you the move?). Now we have a crazy study:

All of White's pieces are trapped!

  To wrap up, all pieces (except for pawns (this is debatable)) can be trapped, whether its a King or a Knight. Knowing how to trap pieces is vital in many situations. Use your imagination and calculation to trap pieces, and watch out yourself for traps.

As a final note, here is a link to a site that has many games played by notable players in which a piece was trapped: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1030520

Thanks Guys, and I hope you enjoyed!