The Legal Trap - A Dirty 7 Move Checkmate

A rule everybody knows is: When you are able to capture the queen, do so (unless its a queen trade, in which case you can choose).

The Legal Trap plays on that rule.

Being one of my favorite moves, as well as one of the dirtiest tricks, it begins with white developing their knights and white bishop, and black moving their black bishop to trade it for a knight:

But then the knight moves out of the way, leaving the queen open:

Black likely thinks white blundered by leaving their queen open. They will likely take it. However, if they take the queen, they lose. You can move your bishop and then your queen-side knight to get checkmate:

This is a relatively obscure trick, and therefore, many people fall for it, more so than the scholar’s mate. The best way to punish the trap is by capturing the king-side knight with your developed knight, instead of taking the queen:

Now the queen cannot take the bishop, or it is captured:

White is now forced to go on the defensive, and will likely guard their queen by moving a pawn. In this case, you can trade bishops:

This denies black 2 key pieces, at the cost of 1, and the black knight is now developed. Of course, black could also just get the bishop out of there:

But then black loses a developed piece, while white has 2. Now black is forced to play defense. It is therefore better to trade, I think.

Given the obscurity of this trick, it almost always works, so it is worth using in games. But when someone does try it, you now know how to counter.

Thank you all for reading, and I hope this works well for you

— ChessPawn921