The Fishing Pole Trap - An Impressive 9 Move Checkmate

I have showed all you how to claim the advantage as black, and how to quickly capture the queen as black. However, while the Cambridge Springs Trap and the Lasker Trap are useful, they do not give you checkmate, and they rely on the Queen’s Gambit, which is not as common as other openings.

The Fishing Pole Trap is a checkmate trap for Black that can work more often.

A 9-move checkmate for black, it begins with the King’s Pawn Opening, King’s Knight Variation (the most popular opening):

Even though the knight is not pinned, white moves their bishop to capture it and trade, playing the Ruy Lopez Opening, and black responds by developing their other knight:

Now white castles, and black moves their king-side knight even further:

White moves their pawn to threaten the knight, and black offers it as a sacrifice, but moves their h-pawn to capture:

The next move seems obvious: hxg4. White captures the knight, and loses only a pawn.

And the game.

If white takes the knight, the game is over.

If the knight is captured, the pawn used to capture it is taken:

Now, with the knight threatened, white moves it. Black then brings their queen out:

Checkmate is now inevitable. White will likely move their pawn to launch a pawn trade, and help escape. Black declines the trade and moves the pawn forward:

It doesn’t matter what happens on the next move. Black now has checkmate:

White could, in theory, counter by moving their f-pawn 2 squares instead of 1, giving the king an escape option. However, that move still leads to checkmate.

After white moves that pawn, black still moves the g-pawn forward

Now, once again, checkmate is inevitable. The only thing white can do is delay by sacrificing the queen:

But what if white refuses to attempt to capture the knight, and instead moves their rook to e1, which often happens after castling:

Black then moves their bishop to threaten the king:

To block this threat, white will move their queen’s pawn 2 squares:

Black then commences a trade, taking the pawn, and sacrificing a knight:

If Black takes the knight, the queen can capture the knight, and remove the threat to the king:

So instead, black brings out the queen:

Threatened, white moves their knight out of the line of fire, threatening the black queen in the process, and black responds by launching a check:

The only move white can do is Kh1. Black then moves their queen to g8, checking again:

And here, Black has blundered, losing their queen. It can be taken by either the knight or the rook:

Or:

Has black blundered? What is the correct next move?

If you can’t figure it out, it’s Nf2#, regardless of what took the queen. Black has not blundered after all:

Or:

So how do you counter?

Regarding the standard trap, the best way to counter is to move your pawn to g3 before capturing the sacrificed knight:

So that when you take the knight, and Black brings out the queen, it is captured immediately:

The knight will likely get out of there when you move the g-pawn, as Black has realized the trap will fail now. White can then develop more pieces, controlling the center:

And with the variation shown, the counter is to leave your knight where it is, and threaten the queen with the pawn:

Now the queen is threatened, and will likely check. Move your king, and you can threaten the queen with the rook:

To maintain the advantage, white will likely do Qh7. You can then threaten with your knight:

If white moves their queen, you can get checkmate:

This trap is more powerful than the other traps for Black that I blogged about, since it leads to checkmate, and is derived from a more common opening. I’m sure it will definitely be useful for you all.

This trap is another one that uses the Queen to get checkmate. Given that fact, you will likely want to get it off the board immediately. While you can do using the Lasker Trap and the Rubinstein Trap, the Legal Trap has shown that prioritizing the queen isn’t the best idea. However, the Legal Trap isn’t the only trap that shows that. My next post will be about another trap that will tell you to think twice before taking the queen.

Enjoy checkmating with this trap

— ChessPawn921