Here's another way to play this as White. I think this second method may be simpler. White wins a pawn almost by force. The resulting position gives black some drawing chances, but the game is going to come down to one of two results. In practical terms at the Grandmaster level, this position was close to winning by move 25.
Is this trick new?!
That's one of the first traps I ever learned, and likely one of the best known opening errors in all of chess. Sorry to disappoint you :)
Not that I know everything. Messing around in the Ruy it occured to me in one speed game, why doesn't white just play an early d4? And I found what was probably a trap known for decades by my opponent...
Congratulations! You've just reinvented the Noah's Ark Trap!
My God, it is one of the most basic tricks in the openings, known for nearly 400 years from an analyses by Greco. In 1620!
Don't want to offend people, but it is so American - I think - not to research things like that and bla-bla-bla about such a position.
So Europeans don't count it as "research" if you ask other players in your (online) community about something you haven't seen before? How refined and intellectual you all must be!
Thanks for making this a welcoming place to learn, Eurosnob.
A friend of mine had this played against him by a much higher-rated player in the first round of the 1976 US Open. Of course its shock value is considerable...but my friend was still able to draw the guy.