Queen's Gambit Traps to be aware of

Hi all

If you ever experiment 1.d4 you might find this analysis useful if you play someone who wants to win your pawn and then cling onto it:

This traps video mentions some philosophy behind chess openings such as my favourite from the art of war:
"The good fighter puts themselves beyond defeat before going onto the attack"

https://youtu.be/bgVzgG1mQTE

In Chess terms, it is a good idea to translate the art of war philosophy into

"Make sure you develop pieces, put your King into safety, and only then think about active operations".

This one bit of philosophy I find is more important than trying to memorise 10 different opening principles. There can be a "one-to-many" relationship between an overarching philosophy and the more specific principles that arise from it. But if you want to have some associated principles, these are good general ones:

• Try and develop pieces efficiently - usually, avoid duplicating a movement from the very same piece
• Try and qualify your piece development around the center of the chessboard - the center four squares
• Try and avoid temptations such as winning material because of the potential for "backfire" if your king is in the center
• Try and castle early - but make sure that when you castle is in a safe area. Castling for the sake of casting can also be a mistake

This philosophy and the key principles seemed to be missing from many of Morphy's opponents. Quite often it seems as though many of Morphy's opponent's pieces haven't "got out of bed in the morning". A lot of the pieces generally are just in their initial positions. Instead, many Morphy opponents were keen to try and win material at the expense of their piece development and King safety. This creates such a huge contrast, that an analysis of Morphy games is fairly instructive for understanding many of the principles of the "Open game".

Here is the classic "Opera game" which everyone should know:

Morphy finishes off nicely from the above position.

If the opponent is too greedy when you play 1.d4 and they try and win the pawn and cling onto it, then they are indulging in "active operations" before being "beyond defeat". When a King is still in the center, the potential for tactics to "backfire" is huge.

The above video has won so many players points, it has been described by some in the past as a "Cheat video". But no, it is all legal. Knowledge of chess traps can be considered like learning some cheat codes of a game. But it is the nature of chess, that you can book up before games, and ramp up points based on knowledge of tricks, traps, and quick zaps!

Takeaway points

• The Queen's Gambit isn't a real gambit - if black tries to hold onto the pawn, they can get into huge trouble
• Respect the Art of War principle - put yourself beyond defeat before going onto the attack
• In Chess terms, you generally want to develop pieces, castle early, and only then think about "active operations" because otherwise, you risk the dreaded "backfire" of tactics.

Hope you enjoyed this blog :). Any likes and follows are really appreciated. Also, I also have some interesting chess courses at https://kingscrusher.tv/chesscourses to check out.

Cheers, K