The Fishing-Pole Trap.

I’ve  been interested by the Fishing Pole Trap ever since someone caught me out with it and then had the decency to direct me to an instruction video on U tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw8hKEiG_IE&feature=watch_response). I think the trap is generally meant to be used in conjundtion with the Ruy Lopez opening, but in the game we are going  to be looking at I seem to have managed to incorportate it into the London game.

The London opening is one I am using quite a lot at the moment. I find it a really good system chiefly because it enables a player to make a nice steady start to a game without sacrificing any material in order to try and gain a positional advantage. There are other reasons why I like the London opening as well, but I think I might save these for another post, but for anyone interested in knowing a bit more about it here is another link to U tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtBMFWuwv1E

This particular game is one that I played in May of 2012 and I was playing with the white pieces. I opened by moving my queen pawn two squares forwards which is the standard opening move for the London game. Black responded with the symetrical pawn to d5 which is the most logical move that most players would probably make in this situation. Move two I played knight to f3 and black responded symetrically again with knight to f6. For move three I bought out my dark squared bishop to  b4, this move being a key feature of the London opening, because in many games of chess it is the light squared bishop which is developed first with the dark square bishop remaining on its starting square throughout the game.

Black’s third move pawn to e6 served the function of backing up his pawn on d5, and I then followed with pawn to c3 to back up my d4 pawn. Black plays bishop to e7, and I then bring out my pawn to e3, which completes a sort of defensive pyramid around my king which is another feature of the London game that I like.

At this point my opponent’s fifth move now marks a turning point in the game. He castles to the king side, and whilst I don’t think there is anything wrong with this and it is not an error in itself, it is this particular move that makes it possible  to use this fishing pole trap, which can only happen after the opponent has castled.  I perhaps didn’t realize straight away that this opportunity for a quick victory had presented itself because I continued with the move bishop to d3, which nevertheless is a good position for my light squared bishop as it allows it to control two long diagonal lines from within the pawn triangle and immediately begins to attack the h7 square adjacent  to the black king.  Black then continues his development with knight to c6, but by this point I have realised my opportunity exists  and the  sequence of moves that follows involve nothing more than the setting up and utilisation of my fishing pole.

I play knight to g5. By doing this it looks to my opponent that my knight is a bit of a threat to his castled defence, which it is, but what I think he doesn’t realise is that from my point of view this piece is merely the bait on the end of my line. Black perceives that the easiest way to make this knight move is going to be by moving his pawn to h6. After he plays this move, I respond with pawn to h4 (the rod from which the bait is dangling), making it look as though I am using this move to back up my knight. Black then sees this as an opportunity to take my knight with his pawn and so gain in material, which he does for his move eight. What he doesn’t realise however is that he has now swallowed the bait ‘hook, line and sinker’, and from this point on a victory for the chess advernturer is inevitable.

My move nine, pawn takes pawn, gives me an open file from my rook to black’s king and also forces black to move his knight on f6, which is the only piece he has left which prevents his defeat. Move nine for black therefore is knight to h7 which I follow with my penultimate move ten, queen to h5. My opponent can do nothing now to prevent check mate and his move ten (pawn to g6) seems more like an empty gesture of defiance than anything else. Move eleven, Queen takes knight on h7 and the game is over.

Victory in chess is always sweet, but especially so when one is able to utilize an idea or sequence of moves that one has learnt and achieve a rapid win in this manner. I must admit, that I wasn’t as benevolant as the person who first used the trap against me and didn’t e mail my adversary afterwards to clue him up on his defeat. Many might say also that only a very inexperienced player would fall into such a trap anyway and I suppose there is a certain amount of truth in that; my opponent’s ELO rating at the time of this game was only 1268, whilst mine was a mere 1197. I think perhaps some of my reluctance to point out my opponent’s error to him after the game may lie in the fact that my version of it is not strictly in accordance with the version illustrated on the U – tube video that fits in with the Ruy Lopez opening, but in any case, I hope I may perhaps have made ammends for my underhand ways by making the game public on this blog post.