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Home » Chess Strategy » Chess Openings » Elephant Trap: Chess Trap In The Queens Gambit Declined Opening

Elephant Trap: Chess Trap In The Queens Gambit Declined Opening

Editorial Staff by Editorial Staff
in Chess Openings, Chess Strategy
Elephant Trap

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Nbd7 *

Elephant Trap Main Line
Main Line of the Elephant Trap

The Elephant Trap is a famous trap in the Queen’s Gambit Declined played with the Black pieces. It’s a simply trap that countless players, mostly amateurs, have fallen into.

The Elephant Trap is likely named the the “Elephant” because the word, Bishop, means Elephant in Russian, describing the Bishop moving to b4 for the trap.

Chess Journal
This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves. For more information, see our step-by-step guide on how to read descriptive Chess Notation.

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Main Line

On 4…Nbd7, Black has set the trap.

Origins

The earliest recorded game where this trap occurred was in the game Karl Mayet vs Daniel Harrwitz in 1848, the game is appropriately called, “The Oldest trick in the Book”.[1]

Example

I hope this guide on the Elephant Trap helped you. if you liked this post, you may want to learn other Chess Traps like the Halosar Trap and Noah’s Ark Trap.


Sources

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The Chess Journal has strict sourcing guidelines for our publishing process and we only reference quality from authoritative publishers, official government websites, and licensed law professionals for sources and footnotes. We avoid using non-proven sources for references. You can learn more about the process we go through to make our content as accurate and up to date as possible by reading our editorial guidelines.

  1. ^ Source Karl Mayet vs Daniel Harrwitz
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