best trappy openings

some trappy openings?

Hikaru and Levy are doing a gambit tier list (not finished). You might find that interesting.

The Danish gambit and the scotch gambit are common favorites. I assume they'll be rated highly.

Gambits usually have traps, and in any case they're openings that let you win quickly when your opponent doesn't know the correct moves.

I also want to suggest the Budapest gambit, it has two terrible traps that it's very easy to fall into. One is more known than the other but I have found a reasonable amount of opponents that have fallen into that. The great thing about it is that is not a very common opening, so they don't know how to respond properly and even if they don't fall into the traps, you can get decent positions. It's not a gambit or win or lose, like the Englund or Tennison for example so it's not even a high risk opening.

This is completely, 100% the wrong way to approach chess!

There are VERY FEW opening traps worth knowing outside of knowing what to avoid!

For example, if you play the Queen's Gambit as White, it is worth knowing that after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Nbd7 5.cxd5 exd5 that White must avoid 6.Nxd5??, but to play Black and relying on that to happen is asinine!  If you are a Cambridge Springs player, that is fine, but just to play this for the sheer sake of a trap is going to fail you 99.999% of the time!

A better example is in the French Defense.

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 and now

A) 6.a3 is best here, intending b4 and Bb2, defending the d-pawn without losing the b-pawn.

B) 6.Bd3 is weaker.  A slightly unsound gambit.  But it has a trap in it!  6...cxd4!! 7.cxd4 Nxd4? 8.Nxd4 Qxd4?? 9.Bb5+, but if this gives you an idea how often someone will fall for it, the following might have a 50% chance of falling for it:

1) Those born yesterday

2) Those playing their first ever game of chess in their life

3) Those with a blood-alcohol level above .3 (NOT .03, .3!)

So in other words, even a reject wouldn't fall for this, and after 7...Bd7, White is already slightly worse just 7 moves into the game!

Player for traps will do nothing to improve your game, and you will be a complete failure at chess as long as you take the "play for the trap" approach!

What you say is correct, but there isn't any harm knowing some traps, chess is also some fun. If he is new and want to know some tricks why not. Knowing traps does not exclude progressing in chess, studying also some more "serious" opening, he can do both without any problem.

The problem with your line of thinking is this:

When you're new to chess and you learn these trappy openings, sure, you're going to win a bunch of games against opponents who fall for them and that will be great fun. But as your rating increases, you will come up against stronger opponents and you will find that your traps no longer work.

At that point, two things can happen to you: 

1. you become frustrated that suddenly you lose a lot and you give up on chess, or
2. you decide that what you really need is new and improved traps for these stronger opponents, and those will work fine for a while, but sooner or later you will come up against stronger opponents and you will find that your traps no longer work.

At that point, two things can happen to you. Repeat until you end up at 1.

Studying opening traps is one of chess's great joys and a temptation very hard to resist (I know I couldn't) but if you want to enjoy chess not just now but in five or ten years' time as well, it is not the way to go. And no, it is not about the way someone else has learnt their chess, it is wrong.

First of all, don't learn traps. They will get you a little higher rated, but you will not get better at chess.

There are many good agressive, gambity openings that can catch your opponent off guard and are very fun to play. Listen to llama47, the Scotch Gambit and Danish Gambit are good gambits.

You also have played complete bums!

Anybody can beat a 1000 player with any opening.  I could play 1.h4 and would beat them.

Here is the catch.  Think about other things in life!  Let's take driving.

If I am in an open field that is 500 acres of flattened, packed down dirt.  No curbs.  No other cars.  Nothing!  I could successfully prop the driver's seat back and operate the steering wheel with my feet, use ski poles to press the gas and brake, and drive around, I will not crash!  By not crashing, I can try to claim that I am a good driver!

Now let's take this same car of ours and drive on the interstate from Savanah, Georgia to New York City via Interstate 95 and let's try to drive the same way we did on the 500 acre field!  You would be dead in a matter of minutes!

Now, let's practice driving the right way.  Hands on steering wheel.  Right foot on Gas Pedal and Brake (not at the same time of course).  Now let's drive in this field.  Pretty easy, huh?  Well, with good driving habits, you can drive up I-95 with little problem.  It might take more concentration on the road and be a little harder with other cars on the road, but you were taught good habits and can drive on an interstate.  You do not have to re-learn a new approach.

Chess Openings are the same way.  You can learn the garbage and you will get away with it against the lemons, but the moment you start facing respectable opposition, you have to start all over again and learn something sound, and now you are behind the others of the same rating.

By learning something sound from the get go, you have the basis to progress.  For example, I always tell people, against 1.e4, you have 4 main options.  Double King Pawn, Sicilian, French, and Caro-Kann.  There is no reason to lean 25 moves of theory early on.  When I played the French as an 1100 player in 1996/1997, I did not know the Winawer 25 moves deep like I do now, nor was there any reason to.  Opponents would not be in book near that long.  It was more important to understand the CORRECT ideas in the French.

By doing this, when it was time to dig deeper, I had a solid foundation.  I learned how to swim, and now jumped for the first time in the deep end.  You decided to play in the sand box your first 5 years, and now you jump in the deep end not knowing how to swim!