Bs"d

So I bought myself a second hand chess book for next to nothing; "Teach Yourself Chess" by IM Bill Hartston, 2 times winner of the British Championship, and the first one to stack the pieces from an entire chess set on top of a single white castle.

Parts of the book looks like rats have been eating it, but everything is still very well readable, thank God.

It's a very nice book, you can teach yourself chess with it, and it has about everything, openings, endgames, tactics, history of chess, illustrative games, very nice book for a beginner or club player: https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Yourself-Chess-McGraw-Hill/dp/0844230502

So in that book I found an interesting gambit in the Italian opening, (aka giuoco piano) where you gambiteer not one, but two pawns. And it has a wonderful trap in it.
So I spent my free Saturday learning that trap with all its variations by heart, and after the sun had set, I cranked up my computer, and gave it a shot on Lichess. It took a few games, but lo and behold, after I played the bishop opening, my favorite, some opponent turned it into the Italian opening. So I offered him a pawn, and he took it. I offered him a second pawn, and he took it. Then I offered him a castle, but he didn't take it. Didn't make a difference though, because it was too late already. He fought hard, but to no avail; he came out of the opening with a bishop missing: https://lichess.org/Ig4sFrqZMgJ0
And from there it was all downhill, I exchanged everything, got myself an exchange on top of it, got into and endgame with a castle more, and the enemy surrendered unconditionally.

Great trap! I want to try that more often.

https://tinyurl.com/trappish

On Thursday, September 9, 2021 at 11:44:59 AM UTC-4, Eli Kesef wrote:
> On Tuesday, May 25, 2021 at 1:06:36 AM UTC+3, Eli Kesef wrote:
> > Bs"d
> >
> > Just played another game against Sidonio, 1800+. He played a Caro-Kann against me, so I played my trap against him, and it didn't really go all the way according to the book. I was wondering why. Then I saw that this was the 13th game I was playing against Sidionio. After the game was over, I saw that he was a fanatic Caro-Kann player, and I saw that I slaughtered him three times with my Caro-Kann trap.
> > For the connoisseur, here are the games:
> >
> > https://lichess.org/xPsP3V6i#25
> > https://lichess.org/5LGZwtc6#25
> > https://lichess.org/ZkrXST2r#23
> >
> > So after biting the dust three times against the same opening trap, he got the hang of it, and didn't fall for it anymore.
> >
> > Still he came out of the opening with a lousy position, and I managed to take him down in 16 moves: https://lichess.org/lSNNhmba#35
> >
> > All is well that ends well.
> >
> > https://tinyurl.com/CaKa-trap
> Bs"d
>
> It is the time of the year for Caro-Kann traps. First I slaughtered an innocent CK player who followed the book line of the trap, and he surrendered on move 12, mate on move 13 was unavoidable: https://lichess.org/ArmyoNvlvY5G
>
> Then I was paired again with Sidionio, the hard-core Caro-Kann player, who I slaughtered already three times with that CK-trap. I only later saw that is was Sidonio, so I started my trap like usual, and on the critical point he started to deviate, he learned his lesson already three times, and had no intention to go down that same road to chess hell again. But, alas, it was in vain. He deviated in wrong way, and had to part with two pawns and a castle in the opening, and before I could relieve him of his castle, he resigned. On move 12: https://lichess.org/KMKE2xYk1CSZ

Slow learner. He's lost by move four, and apparently you have done this to him before.

1800 rated? Please, at the club he'd have been 1100 at best.
>
> Opening traps are horrible things.

The first time you surprised him with it. But the other three times?

You can't force people to play well. Or even adequately.

William Hyde