Trappers trapped

by Jonathan Speelman
7/7/2024 – Trapping the pieces of the opponent has a particular charm. When thinking back to the first days of ChessBase and looking at a game Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alireza Firouzja recently played at the Superbet Classic in Bucharest, Jon Speelman (pictured) remembered a number of famous and entertaining games, in which pieces were caught. | Photo: David Llada
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[Note that Jon Speelman also looks at the content of the article in video format, here embedded at the end of the article.]

Years ago, when ChessBase first appeared, I amused myself for several months by trying to crack the old cb3 data structure. It was encrypted, and initially, I managed to work out the headers (names and tournaments) and write a utility to change these en masse.

It was considerably later that I was able to crack the moves, partly because they were also encrypted (by the first three odd primes: 3, 5, and 7, if I recall) and partly because the old move generator had a bug: the en passant "flag" wasn't reset properly.

This meant that moves such as a5xh6 en passant were in the list, as indeed were en passant captures where a piece arrived in front of the pawn – Bg4xf3 ep, for example. By playing with a hex editor, it was possible to create games in which these moves were "played" and strange phenomena appeared visually on your screen.

Sadly, I can't find these anymore – and I rather doubt whether the latest versions of ChessBase would be so accommodating – but there are plenty of strange moves played in real chess games, and I thought today we’d look at some, starting with the little bug which set me on this path.

M. Vachier-Lagrave - A. Firouzja
White to move

Black has just played Rb6xb2. Can you see White's clever response?

To some extent, c4 "feels" like it should be subject to an en passant capture, and I've added a real en passant capture (which I had here a while ago) albeit in a fairy chess setting, in which with the aid of a so-called nightrider, White delivers a triple checkmate!

MV-L's clever c4 trapped the bishop, and I'm concluding with three more or less famous examples (my own game is pretty well known and the other two are absolute classics) in which pieces were trapped voluntarily or otherwise and escaped, or in one case didn't.

I'll be back on August 4th. Please send me any suggestions if you like.

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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 4.d3 4...Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 This is of course the famous "Berlin Wall" endgame. Generally White players avoid this nowadays by choosing an alternative to 4 0-0 but MV-L is quite often an exception. Since I play neither 1.s4 nor 1...e5 I have no real knowledge of the line so I'm going to let them bash away until Firouzja allowed his bishop to be trapped. 9.h3 Bd7 10.Rd1 Be7 11.g4 Nh4 12.Nxh4 Bxh4 13.Nd2 Kc8 14.Nf3 Bd8 15.Bg5 f6 16.exf6 gxf6 17.Bh6 a5 18.Rd2 c5 19.Rad1 Be6 20.a3 Ra6 21.Kh2 Rb6 22.Kg3 Rg8 23.Re1 f5 23...Bd7 24.g5 Ba2?! Of course I don't know whether Firouzja saw that his bishop was getting trapped but I rather imagine not. 24...Bd7 25.Kf4
25...Rxb2 26.c4! This cute move traps the black bishop since Black has to exchange rooks. Rxd2 27.Nxd2 a4 27...b5 28.Ra1 Bxc4 29.Nxc4 bxc4 30.Kxf5 Is about equally bad for Black 28.Ra1 Bb3 29.Nxb3 axb3 30.Rb1 Re8 31.Rxb3 Re2 32.f3 Rh2 33.Kxf5 Rxh3 34.Bg7 c6 35.Be5 b5
36.cxb5 36.Kg4 Rh1 37.f4 was a better way to do it and according to engines winning for White though this would be difficult to judge the game. 36...c4 37.Rb4 Rxf3+ 38.Ke4 Rxa3 39.bxc6 Bc7 40.Rxc4 40.Bf6 c3 41.Rc4 Ba5 Is also given as equal by the engines but rather more complicated. 40...Rh3 41.Rc5 Bxe5 42.Rxe5 Kc7 43.Re6 Rh1
the only really plausible winning plan is to exchange rooks and H6 but then Black will have plenty of time to capture c6 and trap the white king when he captures on H7 44.Ke5 Rh2 45.Kf6 45.Rh6 Rxh6 46.gxh6 Kxc6 47.Kf6 Kd7 48.Kg7 Ke7 49.Kxh7 Kf7= 45...Rh5 46.Kf5 Rh1 47.Rf6 Rh2 48.Ke6 48.Kg4 Rh1 49.Rf3 Kxc6 50.Rh3 Rxh3 51.Kxh3 Kd7 51...Kd5 52.Kh4 Ke4 53.Kg4 Ke3 54.Kh5 Kf4 55.Kh6 Kg4 52.Kg4 Ke8 53.Kh5 Kf7 54.Kh6 Kg8 48...Rh5 49.Rf7+ Kxc6 50.Kf6 Kd6 51.Ra7 Kc6 52.Ra6+ Kd7 53.Ra7+ Kd6 54.Ra6+ Kd7 55.Ra7+ Kd6 56.Ra6+ Kd7 And they agreed the draw ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Vachier Lagrave,M2732Firouzja,A2737½–½2024C67Superbet ROM Classic 20243
Triple checkmate--1854using nightrider
Psakhis,L2575Speelman,J26150–11987D21Hastings
Tarrasch,S-Lasker,E-0–11908C66World Championship 08th4
Spassky,B2660Fischer,R27851–01972E56World Championship 28th1

In this video course, experts including Dorian Rogozenco, Mihail Marin, Karsten Müller and Oliver Reeh, examine the games of Boris Spassky. Let them show you which openings Spassky chose to play, where his strength in middlegames were and much more.

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Jonathan Speelman, born in 1956, studied mathematics but became a professional chess player in 1977. He was a member of the English Olympic team from 1980–2006 and three times British Champion. He played twice in Candidates Tournaments, reaching the semi-final in 1989. He twice seconded a World Championship challenger: Nigel Short and then Viswanathan Anand against Garry Kasparov in London 1993 and New York 1995.
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