Chess fundamentals/Part I/8

by José Raúl Capablanca

8. TRAPS

I shall now give a few positions or traps to be avoided in the openings, and in which (practice has shown) beginners are often caught.

Example 20.

White plays:

1. P × PKt × P

Black should have recaptured with the Pawn.

2. Kt × KtB × Q
3. B × P chK - K 2
4. Kt - Q 5 mate.

Example 21.

Black, having the move, should play P - K 3. But suppose he plays Kt - K B 3 instead, then comes—

1. B × P ch

Kt - K 5 would also give White the advantage, the threat being of course if B × Q; 2 B × P mate. Nor does B - R 5 help matters, because of 2 Q × B, 1... B - K 3 leaves Black with the inferior position. But White's move in the text secures an immediate material advantage, and the beginner at any rate should never miss such an opportunity for the sake of a speculative advantage in position.

1. ........ K × B
2. Kt - K 5 ch K moves
3. Kt × B

and White has won a Pawn besides having the better position.

There are a good many other traps—in fact, there is a book written on traps on the chess board; but the type given above is the most common of all.