A Bag of Tricks: Two Traps Against The Four Knight's Game
Hello readers, and welcome to the second post in the "A Bag of Tricks" series! For those who are new to this series, my aim is to teach you about tremendous tricks, traps, and tenaciously tactful takeovers to triumph against common openings and gambits.
Most traps that can be found on the internet are in huge lists, and sometimes they only make you up a few pieces, which can be easily recaptured. The traps you are about to see in this series are ones that I think are the best and they will always end in significant material (or rarely positional) gains. So without further ado, let's jump in!
The traps I will show you today are for the Four Knights Game, a common opening and a common response to the ICBM Gambit. It starts with a double King's Pawn, then players advance all four of their knights, thus Four Knights Game.
1. Forking The Pin
This trap is for White. It starts from a regular Four Knights. White proceeds to sacrifice a pawn. After Black captures, White moves its knight to safety. If Black trades knights, the trap will not work. But if Black instead opts to offer a counter trade, the springboard of the trap is set. White pins the knight to the king. Unpinning with the bishop would block the queen, so Black protects it with the queen instead. White opts now to move its queen in front of its king. Black now captures the e-pawn. White's knight then captures, and after Black's pawn recaptures, White recaptures the e-pawn with its knight. After Black's knight recaptures, White's queen recaptures, giving a check. At this rate, anything black blocks with will result with a fork. If the queen blocks, simply trade then fork.
2. Trappy Trapping
This trap is for Black, out of the standard Four Knights Game. After White seeks to capture the e5 pawn by attacking the knight, Black moves the knight to d4, sacrificing the pawn. After White captures, Black attacks with the queen. White defends with pawn to f4. Black proceeds to capture the bishop and after White recaptures Black opts to threaten the knight with the d-pawn. After White moves the knight to safety, Black plays bishop to g4, trapping the queen.
Conclusion
I hope this article has given you some tips to win fast following the Four Knight's Game. As always, thank you for reading and go play some chess!
