Page 3 700 Opening Traps

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700 Opening Traps

Bill Wall

Bishop’s Opening

 (1.e4 e5 2.Bc4) 

 

This is one of the oldest openings with a lot of traps and transpositions.  

Until the middle of the 19th century, most chess authorities thought the 

best place for the Bishop was on c4, threatening the f7 square with a lot of 

attacking possibilities.  Around 1840, this opening fell out of favor due to 

improvements in Black’s Defense.   It still has its traps and played by a few 

modern Grandmasters suxh as John Nunn and Sergei Dolmatov.

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.c3 Nf6 4.d4 exd4 5.e5 d5 6.exf6 dxc4 7.Qh5 Bf8 

[perhaps 7…g5 8.Qxg5 Nd7 is better] 8.Qe5+ Be6 9.fxg7 wins a piece 

(Ursell - O’Hanlon, Southsea 1949)

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.b4!? Bb6 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Nf3 Nxe4? [5…d6 may be safer] 

6.Bxf7+ Kxf7 7.Nxe5+ Ke6 8.Nxe4 Kxe5 9.Bb2+ Kxe4?? [9…Bd4 10.Qh5+ 

is strong] 10.Qf3 mate (Oskam - Grosjean, Rotterdam 1930)

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.d3 Nc6 4.Nh3 Qh4?? [Black should play 4…Nf6] 5.Bg5 

traps the Queen (Wall - Stroud, North Carolina 1977)

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Qh5 [threatening 4.Qxf7 mate] 3…g6?? [3…Qe7 must 

be played] 4.Qxe5+ wins the Rook (Meyer - Newcomb, Los Angeles 1952)

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Qh5 Qe7 4.Nc3 c6 5.Nf3 Nf6 6.Qxe5 Bxf2+ 7.Kxf2?? 

[White should play 7.Kf1] 7…Ng4+ wins the Queen (Greco 1620)

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.d3 Na5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Qh5+ g6? [5…Ke6 is best] 

6.Qxe5, threatening 7.Qxa5 and 7.Qxh8 and winning a piece (Langeweg - 

Ten, Netherlands 1983)

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.d3 Na5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Qh5+ Ke6 6.Qf5+ Kd6 7.d4 

Qf6? [7…Qe8 is preferable] 8.dxe5+ Qxe5 9.Bf4 wins the Queen (Boros - 

Saller, 1995)

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Qf3 [threatenng mate with 4.Qxf7] 3...Nf6 4.Bd5? 

[4.Ne2 looks better] 4...Nd4 5.Qc3 [or 5.Qd3] 5...c6 6.Bc4?! [6.Bb3] 6...

Nxe4 7.Qd3 d5 8.f3 Qh4+ 9.g3 Nxg3 wins since 10.hxg3 Qxh1 wins the 

rook (Yarray - Wall, Internet 1996)

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Qg4 d5 wins a piece (Asphaltboy - Wall, Internet 1996)

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Qh5 d6?? [3…g6 4.Qf3 Nf6 is best] 4.Qxf7 mate 

(Brady - Unknown, 1993)

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 c6 3.Nf3 d5 4.exd5 Bg4 5.Qe2 Bxf3 6.Qxf3 b5 7.dxc6 bxc4 

8.c7 e4 9.Qxe4 c8=Q mate (Wall - Webcrawler, Internet 1997)

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 c6 4.Nf3 d5 5.Bb3 dxe4 6.Nxe5?? [6.Ng5 is better] 

6…Qa5+, winning the Knight after 7…Qxe5 (Tammela - Kiltti, 1992)

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 d5 4.exd5 Nxd5 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.O-O Be7 7.Re1 

Bf6?! [7…f6 or 7…Qd6 may be better] 8.Bb5 Bg4? [8…O-O is better] 

9.Nxe5 Bxd1 10.Nxc6+ wins a piece after 10…Kf8 11.Nxd8 and 12.Rxd1 

(Malaschitz - Aouriri, Internet 1997)

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d4 exd4 4.e5 d5 5.exd6 Bxd6 6.Qxd4?? [White should try 

6.Nf3 or 6.Bg5] 6…Bb4+ wins the Queen (Hejny - Jerabek, Czechoslovakia 

1993)

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d4 Nxe4 4.dxe5 d6? [perhaps 4...Qh4 or 4...Nc5] 

5.Qd5 [threatening 6.Qxf7 mate] 5...Be6 [another idea is 5...Ng5] 6.Qxb7 

Bxc4 7.Qxa8 dxe5?? [Black could resist a little longer with 7...c6] 8.Qxe4 

wins (Linke - Huber, Germany 1992)

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