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Chess openings with traps

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hiimagile

So I just got back playing chess and I was looking for an opening that allows many traps, any suggestion? 

ConfusedGhoul

Open Sicilian and Ruy Lopez, the trap is that Black doesn't know a lot of theory and you do, you win

ThrillerFan
hiimagile wrote:

So I just got back playing chess and I was looking for an opening that allows many traps, any suggestion? 

If traps are your focus, you will fail forever!  That is not how to improve your chess.

 

Case in point.  There is the "Levenfish Trap" - 6.f4 Bg7?! 7.e5 Ng4?? 8.Bb5+ Kf8 (8...Bg7 9.Qxg4) 9.Ne6+ and 10.Qxd8.  But after 6...Nc6 or 6...Nbd7, Black is better!

SmallerCircles

The Budapest gambit is very trappy and less dubious than stuff like the Englund Gambit. The Chigorin defense against the Queen's Gambit is not optimal but can be tricky for white to navigate. One wacky gambit I've seen and wondered if it would work in practice is the Ginsberg gambit against the Sicilian defense.

Morfizera
SmallerCircles wrote:

The Budapest gambit is very trappy and less dubious than stuff like the Englund Gambit. The Chigorin defense against the Queen's Gambit is not optimal but can be tricky for white to navigate. One wacky gambit I've seen and wondered if it would work in practice is the Ginsberg gambit against the Sicilian defense.

 

it's very much playable but you don't get much of an advantage... against sicilian you also have smith-morra and and wing gambits which fun to play

 

 

as for what the op asked... In the italian I like the evans gambit a lot... the danish is fun to play as well

colorfulcake

evans gambit, danish, king's gambit, smith-morra sicilian, basically any open sicilian, budapest... lots of dynamic openings filled with traps - but if you want to improve, traps will only get you so far. You need real skills. You could learn all of the opening theory for every line in the Ruy Lopez and go into the middlegame clueless. I suggest doing tactics, studying endgames and middlegames, analyzing your losses and master games, and learning some basic openings rather than just going for traps constantly 

hiimagile

alright, I'll follow your advice and focus more on general skills, thanks a lot!

B1ZMARK
SmallerCircles wrote:

The Budapest gambit is very trappy and less dubious than stuff like the Englund Gambit. The Chigorin defense against the Queen's Gambit is not optimal but can be tricky for white to navigate. One wacky gambit I've seen and wondered if it would work in practice is the Ginsberg gambit against the Sicilian defense.

The Budapest is sound only if you don’t play for the traps.

tygxc

The only sound gambit is Queen's Gambit.
Do not play for traps, play good moves.

MisterWindUpBird

Albin counter gambit looks playable, even if they don't wander into the spiked pits. There's Queen's gambit, but I have never had an opponent play into its early trap lines, and there are about a million variants of the declined lines. Maybe learn these if you're 9 years old with a 120 IQ.

EKAFC

There is nothing wrong with setting up a trap but you need to focus on solid opening principals. I can show you an example below

 

If you want to learn more about these sacrifices (traps), check this study. It's based off the series on chess.com. Of course, don't try too hard to pull them off. They can prevent the sacrifices and you will be worse

ConfusedGhoul

I would never consider the Budapest or the Albin: "sound" after studying their theory for 10-15 minutes I thought no decent chess player would look at Black's final positions and prefer them over White's...

B1ZMARK
ConfusedGhoul wrote:

I would never consider the Budapest or the Albin: "sound" after studying their theory for 10-15 minutes I thought no decent chess player would look at Black's final positions and prefer them over White's...

then you probably haven't studied the right lines for black in the budapest. Black finds equality in pretty much all the lines besides the alekhine attack, which I think is the critical line against the Budapest.

B1ZMARK

About the albin, I have no clue. Never studied the theory, and probably never will.

ConfusedGhoul

I play 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 Ng4 4. e4 Nxe5 5. f4. if you manage to find equality for black in this line (or at least a position that you would prefer over White's) then let me know. There is a reason if these gambits are never played in serious games against serious players

SmallerCircles

There are other gambits that are played at the top level; they're just usually not as zany. Like lots of lines in the Grunfeld are gambit-like with exchanges being sacrificed. And there's the Grunfeld Gambit itself: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1053408 

These Gambits aren't really traps, though, but might require theoretical knowledge.