Another Killer Opening Trap

Last year, I shared a powerful opening trap, and judging by the comments, you, my dear readers, liked it. Since I got numerous requests for more traps like this, I will share another one, which is even more powerful than the previous one.

I can go on the limb and claim that if you play somebody rated below 1500, they simply have no chance to escape unscathed unless they know this trap. Why am I so sure? Well, I say this based on my own painful childhood experience as well as the experience of my students.

It all starts with regular developing moves, when suddenly White puts his central pawn where it can be taken three different ways.

Let's examine the possible ways the game can continue.

1) Black panics and just retreats their bishop. This is the weakest response of all and gets punished instantly:

If you're wondering how an experienced grandmaster like Spyridon Skembris could fall into this trap, consider the year the game was played. The future GM was just 15 years old then.

2) Black captures the white pawn with their knight. This is the second-worst move. Here's how the game can continue in this case:

This is exactly how I lost my own game when I was 11 years old!

3) Black captures the white pawn with their e5-pawn. This is not a mistake, but it leads to an extremely sharp position where Black needs to play very precisely, and just one wrong move could cost them the game! For starters, Black shouldn't move their attacked f6-knight as the following short games show:

The final example in this variation comes from the great Paul Morphy:

Even if Black finds the best move, 6...d5!, they're not out of the woods yet:

I strongly recommend you to pay attention to this particular trap! The move 9...Qxf6?? is so natural that I've seen even masters falling into it! But even if Black avoids this particular trap, there are dozens of others they can easily fall prey to:

4) Black captures the white pawn with their bishop. This is the most reliable move for Black, but even here, they have many traps to avoid:

It's worth mentioning that besides dozens of traps, this opening line has another benefit: it will improve your tactical skills. And as you are well aware, the famous saying claims that chess is 99% tactics!

If you never played this variation before, then give it a try. And if you already employed it, please share your beautiful wins in the comments!