Traps

What are some good traps that most people don't notice in chess matches?

Blackmar-Deimer gambit

Stop relying on opening traps, and actually learn the aspects of the game or otherwise you won't actually be improving.

Haxo gambit! The scotch in general is full of traps and is hard to play against as black

Why are you asking this in the Improvers forum? You know that learning a new trap won't help you get better at chess, right?

The ponziani opening is just so fun to play in general.

That being said it’s not viable above about 1500, so learn the Ruy Lopez as well or instead

There are some good traps all around, like in the Italian, Scotch, Ponziani, Ruy Lopez, Smith Morra, Queen’s Gambit, French… so many (I can dm some if you want).

That being said, if you try for traps, it is super important that the trap doesn’t worsen your position. For example, if you set a trap, but your position is still good, why not? On the other hand, if you sacrifice the integrity of the game for a cheap trap, you’re relying too heavily on your opponent to mess up. Sound traps are alright, because they don’t mess anything up; going for unsound traps will not help you much (in terms of getting better), because you’d be willingly playing bad moves just to hope your opponent doesn’t understand.

So yeah… there are a lot of traps, but only go for ones that actually turn out ok even if your opponent knows what they’re doing.

You are wrong.

I think I have to agree with sitbear new traps don't help you get better at chess

not necessary traps only help u win, u should improve ur tactics and strategy in the game. U can do that by solving puzzles, watchin videos etc.

if u can find good moves, u can set traps

Your rapid rating is three digits.

Did you know I beat a 1736 in rapid and a 2136 in blitz?Huh?

As someone who is currently higher rated in both time controls (than the ratings you listed), traps generally don’t help with improvement.

With a cautious mindset, they can maybe help a bit (while knowing not to depend on them), but are nowhere near as important as tactics, positional play, openings (not just opening traps), and endgames.

With an mindset that is not extra careful (and gets too far into playing traps), it can hurt overall play because it wires your brain to look for cheap tricks instead of actually trying for genuinely good moves.

So yeah, best case scenario is it helps a bit (but not much), worst case scenario is that it decreases the level of the player. @Sitbear was not wrong.

traps are good as long as you like the positions you get when the opponent doesn't fall for them. good gambits for improvement force you to use the compensation that you sacrificed a pawn or two for to win the game because you will simply be down material if you don't

All they are ''bulling'' me about my rating and now you.

Only reason I brought it up was because you used the ratings of those people to qualify what you were saying… so I followed that example by showing that my opinion (and @Sitbear’s) are also valid.

You called someone’s opinion wrong without even elaborating… so… this is kinda what happens (people saying that what was said isn’t wrong).

(To be clear, I was not trying to insult you or your ratings, I was just matching the pattern of talking about ratings.)

I said he was wrong at 50%

It looks like you said he was just wrong.

But either way, this conversation is getting pointless, so… I guess we’ll keep our opinions.