5 Deadly Chess Opening Traps Revealed by Grandmasters
Who hasn't lost their queen or gotten checkmated in the first 10 moves of a chess game? While all of us have been on the receiving end of an opening trap, five grandmasters have linked up with Chess.com to help us turn the tables with their favorite, most lethal opening traps. They might have outgrown these tricks themselves, but the traps are great for raking in the points at the beginner-to-intermediate levels.
You can watch the video below and keep reading for diagrams and explanations of each of the five traps.
GM Jorden van Foreest started by showing Legal's Mate, a beautiful sequence that starts with a queen sacrifice and ends with White landing a checkmate with three minor pieces. "You need your opponent to go 4...Bg4," Van Foreest explained, "but I think at the lower levels this is very common."
GM Nils Grandelius followed that up by sharing a poisonous surprise that players can use against the London System, a common opening at the amateur level. 2...c5 is a tricky move that can be effective if you know your opponent plays the London, and Grandelius explained that he won a game in a Swedish youth tournament with it once upon a time.
After 4.Nxd4?? e5!, Black is already winning a piece by force. The game may have just started, but it's already over!
Up next was GM Arjun Erigaisi, who showed that you can "hang" your d-pawn in the Queen's Gambit Declined. If your opponent takes the bait with 6.Nxd5??, they're in for a terrible surprise. After the shocking 6...Nxd5!!, Black gives up their queen, but they'll quickly regain it and end up a piece.
GM Andy Woodward walked us through a trap for the white side in the Catalan Opening, an opening that he frequently employs to this day. If Black grabs a pawn and tries too hard to hold onto it, his greed will be punished. After 7...b5 8.a4 c6?? Black cannot stop White from executing a killer double threat: mate on h7 or a capture on a8.
Last but not least, 14-year-old super-GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus showed a well-known trap in the Englund Gambit. After 5...Qxb2, if White plays the most logical-looking 6.Bc3?? they are dead lost. Erdogmus showed White getting checkmated just two moves after that.
Unlike the other traps, this one is very risky to try in your games, however. In all of the other examples, if your opponent plays a different move than the intended trap, you will still have a playable position. But in this case, if White knows the correct 6.Nc3, Black is on the verge of losing due White's faster development.
We hope that you can use some of these traps in your own games. Let us know in the comments: what's your favorite chess opening trap?
