Page 3 700 Opening Traps

Petroff’s Defense 

(1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6) 

 

Petroff’s Defense, also called the Russian Defense, is an old defense analyzed 

by Alexander Petroff (1794-1867), the best Russian player of his time.  

There are quite a few traps from this defense. 

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bb5 c6 4.Bc4 Nxe4 5.d3 Nf6 6.Nxe5?? [better is 6.Qe2 

d6 7.Ng5] 6…Qa5+ and 7…Qxe5 (Malloy - Powell, Internet 1995)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 d5 4.exd5 Bg4 5.Be2 Bd6 6.d4 exd4 7.Qxd4 O-O 

8.Bg5 h6?? [Black should try 8…Bxf3] 9.Bxf6 Qxf6 10.Qxg4, winning a 

Bishop (Gross - Lien, San Francisco 1974)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nxe4 4.Nc3 Nxc3 5.dxc3 d5 6.Bxd5 c6 7.Bxf7+, 

winning the Queen (Kaspareit - Paulsen, Germany 1991)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nxe4 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Kg8 6.O-O d6 7.Qe2 

[7.Qf3 dxe5?? 8.Qb3+ leads to mate, Robinson - Davie, 1916) 7…dxe5 

8.Qc4+ and leads to mate (Tg - Lai, Kual Lumpar 1992)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Be7? 4.Nxe5 d6 5.Nxf7 Qd7 6.Nxh8, winning the 

rook  (Dekker - Copier, Haarlem 1996)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Qe7 5.Nb5 Nxe4 6.Nxc7+ Kd8 

7.Nxa8?? [White should play 7.Nd5] 7…Nc3, winning the Queen (Frank - 

Schiller, New York 1970)

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 exd4 4.e5 Ne4 5.Qe2 Bb4+ 6.Kd1 Nc5  7.Bg5 d3 

8.cxd3 f6 9.exf6+ Kf7 10.Ne5+ Ke6 11.Nc6+, winning the Queen (Fischer - 

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