Early Queen Traps

I saw a book title "222 Opening Traps" and was amazed.  I have lost many times to opening when my opponent brings the queen out early and suddenly, I am done.

They have to do it before you develop or castle and often is done with a side bishop attack and the queen protecting the middle or an attack on c3 before you develop.

I usually have a nice center see the queen coming.  Block its path, but they break through or I do not see an early angle and BAM, I'm dead.

I guess opening with c3 would stop lots of them but slow your development.  But there has to be a way to put their queen either on the run or in trouble.

c3 probably isn't the ideal opening move, unless that's really the way you want to play the game. Perhaps you could post an example or two of games where you've had difficulties due to the opponent attacking with the queen early on so everyone can provide some suggestions?

The games are usually on Live Chess, are those stored?

Ok, here is a game I was doing well in.  Yes, I know 4 pawns in a row on the 4th rank is not great, but things work out weird.  I was setting up an attack (at least I had a plan) and BAM, hit with a queen and rook.  Checkmate. 

Now that is OK, but it happens WAY too often to me.  Here is the game:

I will be glad to analyse...

Once you turn your diagram into a game. 

OK, I think I fixed it now.   Thanks.

This isn't in-depth analysis and I'm not a very strong player, but here are some thoughts:

3. ... Be6 is not a mistake. If white takes on e6 4. Bxe6 fxe6 now black has a pawn supporting the d5 push. The dark squares will open up and the f8 bishop will be mobile, don't worry about good and bad bishop here, the position is still very flexible. Also, black gets use of the half-open f-file for his rook.

I won't analyze the rest of the game, but just answer the original question.

The most important thing in chess is king safety. You should work on trying to see how safe your king is. After 17. 0-0-0 you should recognize the dangers. You have no pieces who can easily participate in the defense of your king. Your king has very little pawn shield (the pawns in front of your king are far extended).

Notice that if you had played 17. 0-0 you would have your bishop near your king and the bishop protects some of the squares that white would have to use to infiltrate. Your queen would also be able to help in the defense. In the game, you have to push more pawns if you want to get your queen over near your king.

After you play 17. 0-0-0 white correctly proceeds to open lanes for his rook. Notice that when the queen and rook get open paths to your king, your pieces are too far away to help. As pointed out, 21. ... Qb7 would have been a better defense. But white will likely turn down the trade of queens with 22. Qa5 and keep attacking your king.

Good point. I obviously didn't look at the potential benefits long enough. I've taken out that comment.

As has been said, one of the most important elements in chess is king safety. Until you become a stronger player, I would recommend you follow the rule that you should always keep the 3 pawns in front of your king stationary. That means if you're going to castle kingside (0-0), then you should keep the a, b, and c-pawns where they are and vice versa on the queenside. Here are my comments for the game:

5...h5? Maybe you intended to prevent a g2-g4 push, but this is a bad move. It leaves you with a weak pawn on h5 and a hole on g5 which can be occupied by a B or N. This also declares your intention to most likely castle queenside.

7...g6? This seems like a wasted tempo. This also proves that 5...h5? was indeed a mistake because you're forced to make another pawn move to protect h5. This just weakens your dark squares. Better was 7...Be7 or 7...d5

8...Bg7?! The bishop is behind a solid wall of pawns. Better was 8...Bh6

9...a6 - Okay. But better would be first to kick/exchange off white's good knights for your bad bishop/knight.

10...b5? This leaves you no suitable place to castle.

17...0-0 might have been better because at least you have two firm pawns guarding the light squares, with your bishop guarding the dark squares. This would also allow your rook to use the half-open f-file.

18...Rhe8 would have been better as this would have activated your inactive rook.

19...c5? Weakens your king and does not address the dangerous issue of the a-file. If White can manage to open the a-file, your king is toast. This is why 19...b5 was your best option in order to block any files leading to your king.

21...Qb7 was better

Thanks everyone.  It took me some time to get my head around your comments.  I am sure, on the flip side of the coin, some of you put a LOT of work in on my behalf.

Thank you to all,

Jim

I could see a lot of potential mistakes in the opening moves, but the main one was why did you castle on the queenside? All he has to do is play a5 and then the queenside is exposed to the rook which quickly leads to mate. I would be wary of castling queenside unless you have pieces to defend on that side of the board, also if you had castled kingside then the f file is semi open so your rook is well posted there and quite active. I'd maybe be doubling my rooks and playing queen to h4 to attack the king side.

Here is a simple trap in the Scandinavian defense:-