legal trap

The Légal Trap/mate is a chess opening trap, characterized by a queen sacrifice followed by checkmate with minor pieces if Black accepts the sacrifice. The trap is named after Sire de Légal who was a French player, or Joseph Henry Blackburne  who was a British master and one of the world's strongest players in the latter part of the 19th century.

Here is how the legal trap/mate is usuall done:

1. e4 e5

2. Nf3 Nc6

3. Bc4 d6

4. Nc3 Bg4?!

5. Nxe5 Bxd1

6. Bxf7+ Ke7

7. Nd5#

This kind of mate, where an apparently pinned knight moves anyway, allowing capture of the queen, but leading to a checkmate with both knights and a bishop, occasionally occurs at lower levels of play, though masters would not normally fall for it. For example instead of taking the queen you can  play Nxe5

Now you see how this move can also be dangerous but there are many other ways to do take the fallowing diagram:

Hope this can help you in you chess games.

Alfred Awe, Belize