Grivas on trapping a piece – 2

by Efstratios Grivas
3/3/2025 – A trapped piece is a piece that has no escape squares or squares where it can safely move without being captured. Even ‘heavier’ pieces can become ensnared, as can minor pieces. Today GM and International Trainer Efstratios Grivas shows us what can happen to such pieces if you are not careful. Annotated games.

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Trapping a Piece

The following are the most typical means of trapping pieces:

  • Capturing it!
  • Limiting its mobility using pawns/pieces and attacking it/locking it out of the game.
  • Chasing it to a bad square or corner of the board, where its mobility will be limited.

A trapped piece can be a bishop/knight, but also ‘heavier’ pieces as rook and queen.
Pawns are not referred to as trapped due to their limited movement, and kings cannot be captured, although any mate is essentially a trapped king!

Trapped pieces are important to recognise because they can often be won. We have to train on how to recognise and attack trapped pieces, but not all trapped pieces can be won easily.

If a trapped piece cannot be attacked or won, it can still be a liability, as technically material has been ‘won’.

Trapping the queen

This is an often met concept, as we have many games where a queen acts carelessly and expose herself early in the game. In general, try not to move around with the queen in the opening, chasing ‘poisoned’ pawns!

You know you can modify the replay board display to suit your taste:

Click the "hamburger" icon on the top left of the board and select an option. Try the Use splitters option and then click the engine button (fan) to go through one game after another.

Trapping a rook

Trapping minor pieces

Here is part one on Trapping a Piece

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Efstratios (30.03.1966) is a highly experienced chess trainer and chess author. He has been awarded by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) the titles of International Chess Grandmaster, FIDE Senior Trainer, International Chess Arbiter and International Chess Organiser.
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60m The Two Knights

This entry into the 60 minutes series concentrates on the Modern variation of the Italian game where White opens the centre early : 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 d4 exd4 5 e5!. This line can be reached by various move orders, most frequently from the Scotch 3 d4 exd4 4 Bc4. It's a sharp variation and Grandmasters such as Evgeny Sveshnikov have used it frequently,with very good results. It's a perfect line for club players to adopt which is relatively easy to learn and which contains many traps. All the main responses are covered here, including 5...d5, 5...Ng4 and 5...Ne4 and the conclusion is that is is difficult for Black to equalize in a straightforward way. Problems are being posed, which over the board might prove tough to solve.