By Rainer Knaak and Karsten Mueller, 200pp. (Edition Olms 2008)

 

Every chess player has gone through the experience of a game coming to an end before it ever really started. The reason is often one of the ubiquitous opening traps, which to the victim look quite ‘normal’ moves – a piece is developed, something is captured, or a threat is set up and parried. The reply, for the most part an unusual one and therefore totally unexpected, then almost inevitably leads to a rapid win for the ‘trapper’. The two internationally recognised grandmaster authors – Rainer Knaak is considered an expert on the openings, and Karsten Müller on the endgame – therefore propose two main objectives:

• the student should master the traps in the openings he plays, in order to avoid disasters;
• but he can also systematically try to expand his opening repertoire, in order himself to set traps.

The first volume contains all the important openings after 1.e4, such as the Italian, French, Spanish, Sicilian etc., as well as introductory texts with their typical motifs, with which one should be familiar. In this way, as a welcome side effect, the reader is guaranteed to improve his combinative skill.

The second volume covers those traps which can be expected after the double advance of the white d-pawn. The scenario is basically the same: the victim makes some quite ‘normal’ move – a piece is developed, something is captured, or a threat is set up and parried. The reply, for the most part an unusual one and therefore totally unexpected, then almost inevitably leads to a rapid win for the ‘trapper’.