In the 1958/59 US Championship, 15-year-old Bobby Fischer caught Samuel Reshevsky, then one of the strongest players in the world, in an opening trap that won the queen by move 12. The game is known on chess databases as "An Opening Trap to Remember". One thematic-looking knight move against Fischer's favorite bishop setup, and a world-class grandmaster was lost out of the opening. The same trick still catches players today.
Against the Accelerated Dragon, White posts the bishop on c4 and tucks it to b3. When Black hunts it with 8...Na5??, White strikes in the center: 9.e5! displaces the f6-knight, 10.Bxf7+! drags the king onto the fatal diagonal, and 11.Ne6! forks the queen, which falls after 11...dxe6 12.Qxd8.
After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.Be3 Bg7 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.Bc4 O-O 8.Bb3, White has the classic Fischer setup: the bishop sits safely on b3, raking the a2-g8 diagonal toward f7. Now 8...Na5?? looks thematic, hunting the strong bishop, but it removes a defender from the center at the worst moment. 9.e5! hits the f6-knight, which has no good square: after 9...Ne8, everything is loose around the black king. 10.Bxf7+! is the first blow: the bishop Black wanted to trade sacrifices itself to deflect the king. After 10...Kxf7 comes the real point, 11.Ne6!!: the knight attacks the queen on d8 and cannot be safely removed. Taking it with 11...Kxe6 walks into a forced mate starting with 12.Qd5+ Kf5 13.g4+!, so Reshevsky played 11...dxe6, and after 12.Qxd8 White had won queen and pawn for bishop and knight. Fischer converted comfortably; Black was already lost on move 12.
8… Na5 — 8...Na5?? (ply 16) is the losing move. Hunting the b3-bishop with the knight is a standard plan in many Sicilian structures, so it feels safe, but here it walks away from the center while the f6-knight and f7-pawn need every defender. Correct was 8...d6, completing development first; then ...Na5 ideas can be considered under proper conditions. Even the retreat 9...Ne8 made things worse: 9...Nxb3 10.exf6 Nxa1 11.fxg7 limits the damage to two pieces for a rook, still a bad position but not an immediate loss of the queen.
Before you send a knight to the rim after that b3-bishop, check one concrete thing: what does e5 do to your f6-knight? In the Accelerated Dragon, 8...d6 is the move, restraining e5 and connecting Black's position. The deeper habit: when your opponent builds a battery against f7 and you castle into it, every piece you move away from the kingside must be checked against sacrifices on f7 followed by knight jumps to e6 or g5. This exact sequence has kept catching strong players for decades, so knowing it is worth real rating points.
Yes. Samuel Reshevsky, a multiple US champion and world championship candidate, lost his queen on move 12 to 15-year-old Fischer at the 1958/59 US Championship. The trick had appeared earlier in Bhend vs Wade, 1955, and analysis of it was published in the British Chess Magazine shortly before Fischer used it.
A forced mate. After 12.Qd5+ Kf5 13.g4+! Kxg4 14.Rg1+ every king move loses quickly, for example 14...Kf5 15.Rg5#. That is why 11...dxe6 12.Qxd8, giving up the queen for two minor pieces, was actually the lesser evil.
A trap only works if your opponent makes the mistake — strong players sidestep these, which is why each page also shows how to avoid it. Every line here is checked legal with the same engine the board runs, and every checkmate is verified.