Most Devious Chess Trap

A trap is a lie told in chess notation. One side leaves something on the board that looks free — a pawn, a bishop, now and then the queen — and the other side has to decide whether the gift is real. Most of the time it isn't.

Some of these have caught the very best. Rubinstein fell into his namesake twice, and Zukertort and Gunsberg both walked into Tarrasch's version in the Open Ruy Lopez. Others belong on the playground: Fool's Mate, Scholar's Mate, and the Meadow Hay Trap, where a rook strolls onto a bishop's diagonal on move two.

Every board here stops on the move where the victim bites, the capture or quiet slip that the rest of the line punishes. The lines come from the analysis and games the traps are named after, and each diagram is produced by actually playing them out. Vote for the one whose deception you admire most.