The Blackburne Trap

Hi guys.

I know a lot of you have piles of chess books.

Can anybody find a ref in a book dated before 1980 calling the following
wequence of moves The Blackburne trap.

(Don't look on the net. Every site mentioning it is wrong. It is not
the Blackburn trap - Blackburne stated the trap named after him
was infact Legal's Mate.)



Cheers.

In "How Not to Play Chess" (published in 1959), Eugene Znosko-Borovsky mentions the Blackburne Trap as being the same as Legal's Mate:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b177/gallicrow/chess/BlackburneTrap.jpg

I played a game recently where my opponent used this opening against me.

I panicked a bit because I didn't have a clue how to refute it but eventually managed to even things out, and I think I actually missed a checkmate opportunity later in the game - I think I made misstep at move 23. I'd be interested in hearing the best way to play against this as white.

Game 6984687

I hope I haven't hijacked your thread GP.

Originally posted by Double G
I played a game recently where my opponent used this opening against me.

I panicked a bit because I didn't have a clue how to refute it but eventually managed to even things out, and I think I actually missed a checkmate opportunity later in the game - I think I made misstep at move 23. I'd be interested in hearing the best way to play against this as white.

Game 6984687

I hope I haven't hijacked your thread GP.

Just take the horse, instead of the pawn. You were lucky he wasn't very familiar with the gambit and didn't know how to exploit your 7.f3 further.

Bill Wall's article about the Shilling Gambit is very good:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/shilling.htm

Obviously Black had a completely won game after six moves in game above and had to find some really appalling moves to lose it.

Isn't it called the Blackburne-Shilling gambit

According to wikipedia : ''The first known mention of this line was by Steinitz, who noted it in 1895 in the Addenda to his Modern Chess Instructor, Part II''

Originally posted by Double G
Game 6984687

Mr Crafty found 23.f6!! in this game:

that's absolutely brilliant. But the original game was very nice as well, thanks for sharing.

Originally posted by Palynka
Just take the horse, instead of the pawn. You were lucky he wasn't very familiar with the gambit and didn't know how to exploit your 7.f3 further.

Definitely worth a try for white is to take the pawn, when Qg5, Bxe7, Ke7, 0-0! Queen takes knight, bishop takes knight. Black's up a knight for two pawns, but his game seems terrible.

Originally posted by Fat Lady
Bill Wall's article about the Shilling Gambit is very good:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/shilling.htm

Obviously Black had a completely won game after six moves in game above and had to find some really appalling moves to lose it.

Just noticed that one of the games in Wall's article is "G. Chandler - NN, Stockbridge 1983"

Nice one with f6! That's sweet. To be honest I did think about f6 but didn't have the stones to play it at the time because I was a bit of a wreck after messing up the opening - I just wanted to get even on material. Lesson learned though - I gotta stay cool!

Originally posted by Double G
I played a game recently where my opponent used this opening against me.

I panicked a bit because I didn't have a clue how to refute it but eventually managed to even things out, and I think I actually missed a checkmate opportunity later in the game - I think I made misstep at move 23. I'd be interested in hearing the best way to play against this as white.

Game 6984687

I hope I haven't hijacked your thread GP.

Great game! A wonder, that that game ended with a draw ;-)

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Hi guys.

I know a lot of you have piles of chess books.

Can anybody find a ref in a [b]book dated before 1980 calling the following
wequence of moves The Blackburne trap.

(Don't look on the net. Every site mentioning it is wrong. It is not
the Blackburn trap - Blackburne stated the trap named after him
was infact Legal's Mate.)

[pgn] ...[text shortened]... e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nd4 4. Nxe5 Qg5 5. Nxf7 Qxg2 6. Rf1 Qxe4+ 7. Be2
Nf3[/pgn]

Cheers.[/b]

I think, I have seen that game in Tarrasch's "Game of Chess" from about 1928, but it was not called Blackburne trap. I will have a look on the weekend, when I am back home by my books

Edit: in chess related historical questions, ask GM Lothar Schmid! http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lothar_Schmid
He will always assist you. He has propably the greatest chess library of the world

Hi Guys,

You have all been brilliant.

Here is the situation.

Everyone thinks the Shilling Trap is the Blackburne Trap.
It's not, it's the trap that Fat Lady showed Legal's Mate and this is the trap
shown in Blackburner's book as 'his' shilling earner.

So who started this myth about it being the 3...Nd4 game?

I've checked Blackburne's obit in the 1924 BCM and loads of other books.
I was at the Edinburgh Club tonight checking more.

The trap is often mentioned but never with the Blackburne connection

The first mention I can find in a book is Chess Addicts 1987.
(Bill Wall is wrong with Chess Companion 1992).

However...and this is where it gets sticky.

When I wrote MASTER CHESS 1983/84 I think I mentioned the mistake as well.
And I cannot find any mention of it before me.

Did I start the whole thing rolling?

I don't have a copy of Master Chess - can anyone check if I call it the
Blackburne trap with the same wrong moves. (I've written about this
trap so often I cannot rememebr if I put it in that book - it was 25 years ago).

This would be a classic Chandler Goof.

I start a quest looking to see who starrted this myth and it turns out to be me!

Originally posted by Double G
I played a game recently where my opponent used this opening against me.

I panicked a bit because I didn't have a clue how to refute it but eventually managed to even things out, and I think I actually missed a checkmate opportunity later in the game - I think I made misstep at move 23. I'd be interested in hearing the best way to play against this as white.

Game 6984687

I hope I haven't hijacked your thread GP.

Wonderful game of chess, but this shouldn't have been too difficult?