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The Mortimer Trap is a chess opening trap in the Ruy Lopez named after James Mortimer. The Mortimer Trap is a true trap in the sense that Black deliberately plays an inferior move to tempt White into making a mistake.
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6
4. d3
5. Nxe5? c6! (see diagram)
6. Nc4!?
6... Ng6!
Mortimer played his defense at the 1883 London tournament against Berthold Englisch, Samuel Rosenthal, and Josef Noa, losing all three games. [6] Johannes Zukertort, the tournament winner, also played it against Englisch, the game resulting in a draw. [7] Zukertort wrote of 4...Ne7, "Mr. Mortimer claims to be the inventor of this move. I adopted it on account of its novelty." [8] The first edition of the treatise Chess Openings, Ancient and Modern analyzed 5.Nc3 Ng6 6.0-0 c6 7.Ba4 d6 8.Bb3 and now the authors gave either 8...Be6 or 8...Be7 as giving Black an equal game. [9] A bit more recently, Horowitz and Reinfeld observed of 4...Ne7, "This time-wasting retreat of the Knight to an inferior square blocks the development of the King Bishop ... . Yet it is a matter of record that this pitfall had a vogue for many years." [2]
In the game of chess, perpetual check is a situation in which one player can force a draw by an unending series of checks. This typically arises when the player who is checking cannot deliver checkmate, and failing to continue the series of checks gives the opponent at least a chance to win. A draw by perpetual check is no longer one of the rules of chess; however, such a situation will eventually allow a draw claim by either threefold repetition or the fifty-move rule. Players usually agree to a draw long before that, however.
In chess, a smothered mate is a checkmate delivered by a knight in which the mated king is unable to move because it is completely surrounded by its own pieces.
The zwischenzug is a chess tactic in which a player, instead of playing the expected move, first interposes another move posing an immediate threat that the opponent must answer, and only then plays the expected move. It is a move that has a high degree of "initiative". Ideally, the zwischenzug changes the situation to the player's advantage, such as by gaining material or avoiding what would otherwise be a strong continuation for the opponent.
The Philidor Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
The Vienna Game is an opening in chess that begins with the moves:
The Réti Opening is a hypermodern chess opening whose "traditional" or "classic method" begins with the moves:
The Ponziani Opening is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
The Hungarian Defense is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
Handicaps in chess are handicapping variants which enable a weaker player to have a chance of winning against a stronger one. There are a variety of such handicaps, such as material odds, extra moves, extra time on the chess clock, and special conditions. Various permutations of these, such as "pawn and two moves", are also possible.
The Würzburger Trap is a chess opening trap in the Vienna Gambit. It was named around 1930 for German banker Max Würzburger.
The Magnus Smith Trap is a chess opening trap in the Sicilian Defence, named after three-time Canadian chess champion Magnus Smith (1869–1934). In an article titled "The 'Magnus Smith Trap'" published in his Chess Notes column, chess historian Edward Winter wrote:
We believe that 'Magnus Smith Trap' is a misnomer, although in the Sicilian Defence there is a 'Magnus Smith Variation'.
The Colle System, also known as the Colle–Koltanowski System, is a chess opening system for White, popularised in the 1920s by the Belgian master Edgard Colle and further developed by George Koltanowski.
The Blackburne Shilling Gambit or the Schilling-Kostić gambit is the name facetiously given to a dubious chess opening, derived from an offshoot of the Italian Game, that begins:
In chess, a swindle is a ruse by which a player in a losing position tricks their opponent and thereby achieve a win or draw instead of the expected loss. It may also refer more generally to obtaining a win or draw from a clearly losing position. I. A. Horowitz and Fred Reinfeld distinguish among "traps", "pitfalls", and "swindles". In their terminology, a "trap" refers to a situation where players go wrong through their own efforts. In a "pitfall", the beneficiary of the pitfall plays an active role, creating a situation where a plausible move by the opponent will turn out badly. A "swindle" is a pitfall adopted by a player who has a clearly lost game. Horowitz and Reinfeld observe that swindles, "though ignored in virtually all chess books", "play an enormously important role in over-the-board chess, and decide the fate of countless games".
The Jerome Gambit is an unsound chess opening which is an offshoot of the Giuoco Piano. It is characterized by the moves:
George Hatfeild Dingley Gossip was a minor American-English chess master and writer. He competed in chess tournaments between 1870 and 1895, playing against most of the world's leading players, but with only modest success. The writer G. H. Diggle calls him "the King of Wooden Spoonists" because he usually finished last in strong tournaments.
Charles Edward Ranken was a Church of England clergyman and a minor British chess master. He co-founded and was the first president of the Oxford University Chess Club. He was also the editor of the Chess Player's Chronicle and a writer for the British Chess Magazine. Ranken is best known today as the co-author of Chess Openings Ancient and Modern (1889), one of the first important opening treatises in the English language.
William Wayte was a Church of England cleric and a British chess master. He was one of a group of ministers who played a prominent role in English chess in the late nineteenth century. Although little remembered today, according to Chessmetrics he was the number 9 player in the world at his peak in 1878.
The Semi-Italian Opening is one of Black's responses to the Italian Game. It begins with the moves:
The McDonnell Gambit is a chess opening gambit in the King's Gambit, Classical Variation that begins with the moves:
Bibliography