CAMBRIDGE SPRINGS DEFENSE

       The Cambridge Springs has more traps per square centimeter than any other opening in the game of chess.

The Cambridge is a good defense, I wouldn't call it trappy.  It is more tactical than the standard QGD which is why it maintains popularity.

Could you post some of its main lines?

   I would call it very trappy...  See: WINNING CHESS TRAPS, by Chernev.  Most people are un aware of all the dangers White can fall into.  That's my point.  Just the 6 or 8 pages devoted to it in Chernev are a like a book on the opening.

You can go to Google, type in Cambridge Springs Defense and Click on Wikipedia. They diagram it and give good information on chess openings in general.  It has been played very successfuly by Gary Kasparov.  Alexander Alekine beat the great Jose Raul Capablanca with it in one of their world championship match games.

I am always preaching that players do not know where the traps are because openings books almost never show you.  They are by passed by "best move" thinking.  Thus, players could be hurrying right by a winning game.  Informator, ECO, BOC, etc. are not going to stop and show you any of these lines. I never ever want to book past the traps in the Cambridge Springs Defense.  If it does not have traps, you do not know where they are.  There is a trap in the Cambridge Springs most players cannot even see coming.  When many avoid It that is because they are playing the book, but they still do not know it is there.

Case in point:

1.d4     1.d5

2.c4     2.e6

3.Nc3   3.Nf6

4.Bg5   4.QNd7

5.cxd   5.exd

6.Nxd   6.Nxd

7.Bxd8  7.Bb4+

and White loses his Knight. 

Seven moves people, and no one here mentioned they knew this trap.  In the Cambridge Springs that is just for openers.

I've got Chernev's book, its put up with a lot of my old chess books, stored in another state, and I wouldn't use it as a text book on any opening.  Traps are fun but not the essence of an opening.  How many pages are devoted to each of the openings?  I seem to remember several French and Sicilian pages.

There are traps in which black can fall, as well. Here is one example:

1.d4 d5, 2.c4 e6, 3.Nc3 Nf6, 4.Bg5 Nbd7, 5.e3 c6, 6. Nf3 Qa5, 7.Qb3 !?.

I have won many games with it. 

7.... Ne4, 8.Bf4 Bb4, 9.Rc1 . How should black continue from here?

The 'automatic' moves 9.... Ndf6, or 9....0-0 give white a clear advantage after 10.Bd3, and then 0-0.

Only 9....g5! is correct, then both 10.Bg3 h5!  or  10.Be5 f6, 11.Bg3 h5! are good. But very few players  find this when seeing 7.Qb3 for the first time...

I think the best continuation for white is

7.c:d5 N:d5, 8.Qd2, as Kasparov played very often. I believe, white keeps a longlasting advantage.

That is a very good post Mandelshtam.  Very nice.

The cambridge springs has always been a fun opening to play for me.  I stopped using it because of the end of the book lines in which black has a very hard time making something out of his bishops, however, like billyidle says, there are quite a few traps that white must be aware of to get into a playable position.

erad1288

    The other thing is White often plays the Exchange Variation in order to implement a Minority Attack against Black.  So the defense steadily lost popularity until Kasparov picked it up.  Black must also practice, and be ready for the Minority Attack to be successful with it.

I thought about going into the Cambridge Springs as Black in OTB, but decided against it because the traps are fairly well known and all White has to do is be wary and he will come out of the opening with a decisive advantage.

KillaBeez,

   That's what Capablanca thought when he lost to Alekhine who was playing the blackside.

heres a cool one

I'm just now taking up Cambridge Springs Defense. Besides the exchange, I want to know the other ways White plays to avoid it.

  No reason White should try to avoid it.  If he does he will play the exchange variation, which is difficult for Black for meet.  You must study the Minority Attack to make sure you know how to meet it with Black.

Even with studying Black defence is still hard as he has no real counter-attacking plan since white is better in the center and the kingside is equal.

 By playing 7. a3

I love the Cambridge Springs Defence and yes it is Trappy. But it is also as Solid as any Defence in QGD! It just has Counterplay, Traps and Fun going for it...

I started using this Defence after reading "How to Play the Chess Openings" by Eugene Znosko-Borovsky. He went into it in depth, it is a great inexpensive book still in print after 70 years.

 "A player who, as Black, starts a Queen's side counter-attack in the Queen's Gambit must not delude himself about the outcome of his enterprise. This demonstration, without going so far as to demolish White's position, at least allows Black to bring out his pieces with threats and thus without loss of time. He will thus complete his development and will be able to resume a normal game."... Eugene Znosko-Borovsky

   From Wikipedia:

In chess, the Cambridge Springs Defense (or less commonly, the Pillsbury Variation) is a variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined beginning with the moves

1.d4 d5

2.c4 e6

3.Nc3 Nf6

4.Bg5 Nbd7

5.Nf3 c6

6.e3 Qa5

The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings code is D51.

Black breaks the pin on the h4-d8 diagonal and forms a pin of his own on the c3 knight (exploiting the absence of the queen's bishop from the queenside). If Black later plays dxc4, there may be threats against the g5 bishop. Note that 5. cxd5 cannot win a pawn because of the Elephant Trap. The main line continues 7...Bb4 with the threat of Ne4 and pressure along the a5-e1 diagonal. White has several choices at his seventh move. The most common are:

• 7. Nd2 (the main line) immediately breaks the pin on the c3 knight and defends e4; 7...Bb4 is answered by Qc2, defending the c3 knight and covering e4.
• 7. cxd5 avoids complications by clarifying the situation in the center. Black's strongest is the recapture Nxd5, continuing the attack on c3.
• 7. Bxf6 avoids tactics involving discovered attacks on the g5 bishop.

The first recorded instance of this opening was played by Emanuel Lasker in 1892. The name derives from a 1904 tournament in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania in which the defense was used several times. Practitioners of the opening have included Efim Bogoljubov, Vasily Smyslov, and Garry Kasparov.

Mainly the Cambridge Springs is avoid by White playing the exchange variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined.

I really hate reading Wiki articles at Chess.com.  If I can read it here I have the capability to read it at Wiki.  As does everyone else.  If I want Wiki's input I'll go ask Wiki.