trappin an elephant and got a queen

    I just used another trap in an italian opening on a guy with a 2064 rating. It's a bishop sac on f7 to get the king out in middle of the board: even material,  but whites  got a  lot better position. Of course I think i'm going to lose that one anyway, he's a much better player than I am, I'll probably post that one when it's done to get some ideas on where I went wrong

Even more amazing than lack of opening knowledge is that it is legal to use databases in corespondence chess. I guess that people are playing so many games at once, they are effectively playing blitz.

tonydal wrote:

Honestly, it's a little hard for me to believe that a 1900 fell into that; it's about the oldest trap in the book (maybe he'd entered the wrong position or something?).

 Ratings don't matter! How they play does.

why didnt he take your queen in the beginning?

Do you even know the proper variation from Kbd7(cambridge springs)

Nice excution anyway my only improvment is 19...Nd5

   Raze_hello125 I believe he wanted to keep the queens on the board and draco thanks for tip

Haha the elephant trap is one of my favorites, any trap where you 'hang' your queen is great, the Legal's mate is probably the greatest ever.  Even though your a piece up I find finishing the game can be tricky just becuase the position is so unnatural. Anyway, had one comment, were your labeling 5 cxd5 as a mistake? or were you just indicating hopeful suspense....because that move isn't a mistake.

I always knew it as the Cambridge Springs Trap.

 chess lobster I put it in the wrong spot, still trying to figure out how to post games. KillaBeez you may be right also, I've only started learning openings and traps since I've become a member

Raze_Hello125 wrote:

why didnt he take your queen in the beginning?

As Dio mentioned, its just a queen trade. If 7. Bxd8... Bb4+ 8. Qd2 Bxd2+ 9. Kxd2 Kxd8. It's better than losing your queen outright but I dont think white was predicting that he'd lose his queen later on in the game.

Also, trading down would be horrible at this point considering white is down a knight for a pawn.

@Dio: I'm assuming the game was played here at chess.com? If so, that can not be a true 1900. His opening knowledge is a bit lacking if so. Otherwise, he just played really sloppy. Not to take credit away from you or anything :)

Thanks for showing us!

     Thanks Rasmir, yeah it was played in a chess.com tourney so I know the ratings are not realistic. I'm probably a 1300 to 1400 if I played in any otb tourneys (I'm just guessing)