Judith’s Queen Trap

In the final cautionary tale in this series, we have a rather modern game, featuring arguably the best female Chess player in history. It is particularly memorable because her opponent tries to trap her Queen by dangling a poisoned Rook, but completely misses the counter-trap Judith has been laying all along.

Why should you memorize this game?

As White

This game enters the Burn Variation of the Classical French, and Black achieves early equality. Because of Black’s solid structure, finding middlegame plans will depend primarily on the imbalances White chooses to introduce. Giving up the Bishop-pair for a Knight is hardly a favourable trade in most French positions. However, in this particular case, White demonstrates how it can force Black to spend two important tempi to regain solidity. White uses those tempi to accelerate development and start an attack.

Even more instructive are two points in the middlegame where White could have suffered heavy material loss after petered out attacks, resulting in completely losing positions. Each give two important lessons:

Positional Awareness: With the White King castled queenside on c1 and the Queen on d2, Black has several menacing threats along the h6-c1 diagonal. So, remaining mindful enough not to get your Queen trapped is critical.

Attacking Move Order: After sacrificing material for opening lines, you might not always have the luxury to follow-up with a natural-looking but slow attack. You have to find the deepest move-tree of forcing lines that maintain advantage.

As Black

This game traces the thin line between a solid and a passive position. Aiming for solidity at the cost of piece-activity may restrict your underdeveloped pieces from joining the defense against a quick attack. It is better to develop all pieces to non-ideal squares than to spend important tempi getting the already-developed pieces to their “ideal” squares.

The game is also a caution against “plan blindness”. Don’t get so caught up in your own plan that you don’t look for the best moves your opponent can play. Remember the advice? “When you find a good move, look for a better one.” Do that for your opponent’s moves as well.

Now, let’s jump into the game.

Pull out your chess set

If you don’t have one, or it is super-inconvenient right now, you can use the lichess interface below. In case you can’t see it, go to the study page directly.

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Entering the Burn Variation.

4…dxe4 5.Nxe4 Be7 6.Bxf6 The first imbalance in the opening. Bishop for a Knight.

6…Bxf6 Black chooses to preserve the pawn structure, since he has plans of castling kingside. This does give White to rebalance by taking the Bishop with the Knight.

7.Nf3 White prefers to keep the piece-imbalance and prioritize development. Though the Bishop for Knight trade is not favourable in most French positions, here White argues that Black’s Bishop is misplaced.

7…O-O 8.Qd2 Nd7 Preparing to place the Knight on f6, it’s most natural defensive post for the castled King. Also, with White preparing to castle queenside, Blacks a-b-c pawns are left unobstructed to storm ahead.

9.O-O-O Be7 Preserving the Bishop and making way for the Knight. This was Black’s first positional mistake. Black should have prioritized development of the other pieces, especially “bad” light-squared “French Bishop.”

10.Bd3 While Black spends important tempi developing his pieces to their natural squares, White finishes her development with four active attackers eyeing the kingside. However, though passive, Black’s position is solid after Nf6.

10…b6 Now it is a move too late to develop the light-squared Bishop. White’s Bishop is already eyeing that h7 square. Black has to move Nf6 here to shut down kingside play. Instead he suddenly woke up to the passive “French Bishop” on the queenside. White will not let him get away with this tardiness.

11.Neg5 First shot fired.

11…h6 Black defends with an active move, which removes the pawn from the targeted square and establishes a grip on the critical g5 square essential to White’s attacks. Alternatively, capturing the Knight may have been a more solid defense, but it is unclear if Black is in time to defend against a White h-pawn running up the file. [11…Bxg5 12.Nxg5 Nf6 13.h4 and White has an attack.]

12.Bh7+ In a far-seeing critical move, Polgar forces the King to the h-file, which might open up with check after a h2-h4 thrust to recapture on g5 if Black captures the Knight.

12…Kh8 13.Be4 Retreating with tempo on the a8 Rook. The next move is critical for Black.

13…hxg5 Disregarding the hanging a8 Rook, Black takes the Knight. With a strong attack brewing on the kingside, Black signals that he is okay being an exchange down so long as it permanently removes one of White’s menacing attackers (the Knight) and temporarily misplaces another (the Bishop) on the opposite corner of the board.

14.g4 Say what?! Polgar calls Black’s bluff and refuses to take the hanging Rook, though she’s already down a piece. This is the move we memorize the game for. Let’s explore what could have happened had she captured the “poisoned Rook”. [14.Bxa8 g4 If you move the Knight, you lose the Queen after Bg5. If you move the Queen out of the way, you’ll lose the Knight and White will lose her attack. It is precisely to prevent this g5-g4 pawn thrust that White played g4 herself, fixing the Black pawn on g5.]

14…Rb8 With the Queen Trap foiled, now the Rook is indeed hanging.

15.h4 Ready to shred open the h-file with check.

15…g6 Creating a dark-coloured escape square for the King to elude checks from White’s light-squared Bishop. Also, it will make way for the f8 Rook to counter White’s heavy pieces on the h-file. The alternative, taking on h4, leads to a losing position even with best play. [15…gxh4 16.g5 f5 17.Qf4 fxe4 18.Qxh4+ Kg8 19.Qh7+ Kf7 20.Qh5+ g6 21.Qh7+ Ke8 22.Qxg6+ Rf7 23.Rh7 Bxg5+ 24.Nxg5 Qxg5+ 25.Qxg5 Rxh7 26.Qg6+ Rf7 27.Qxe6+ Kf8 and White has the more active position]

16.hxg5+ Kg7 17.Qf4 Eyeing the h2 square.

17…Bb7 Trying to exchange at least one attacker, either the e4 Bishop or the f3 Knight to blunt White’s attack. Alternatively, Black could have tried to fight for the h-file, but it isn’t much better. [17…Rh8 18.Rxh8 Qxh8 19.Ne5 and the Bishop protects h1. Rook can come in and regain control of the open file.]

18.Rh7+ White sacrifices more material to bring the King back to the h-file. Black has to accept the Rook, as Kg8 walks into a Mate in 7. Find it as an exercise.

18…Kxh7 19.Qh2+ Brilliant move. Extremely instructional moment: pay attention to move order. The more natural-looking Rh1 doesn’t work as there is no continuation of the attack after Kg7. In fact, Rh1 is completely losing. [19.Rh1+ Kg7 20.Qh2 Bxg5+ 21.Nxg5 Qxg5+ 22.f4 Qxg4 23.Bxb7 Rxb7 and White is down too much material.]

19…Kg8 Kg7 would have walked into a more forcing line. [19…Kg7 20.Qh6+ Kg8 21.Bxg6 21.Rh1 Bxg5+ 22.Nxg5 Qxg5+ 23.Qxg5 Bxe4 Bxg5+ 22.Nxg5 Qxg5+ 23.Qxg5 Rfe8 24.Be4+ Kf8 25.Rh1 f6 26.Rh8+ Ke7 27.Rh7+ Kd6 28.Qg7 Rbd8 29.Bxb7 and White is up material with overwhelming attack.]

20.Rh1 Bxg5+ Prolonging the inevitable.

21. Nxg5 Qxg5+ 22.f4 Qxf4+ 23.Qxf4 Bxe4 24.Qxe4 1-0 Black resigns.

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From my Chess Preparation Journal, dated 19-December-2020.

Why should you memorize this game?

As White

Exchange Variations of the French are notorious for early equality. Which is probably why French Defense players become quite happy when they see it on the board. White has only a handful of ways to poke into the position and elicit an inaccuracy. This game demonstrates one such. Though it will be rare for a prepared player today to fall for this, it is nonetheless a masterclass in punishing Black’s complacency after gaining early equality.

As Black

You might be familiar with positions arising from the Lputian Variation or the Burn Variation that call for getting the g-pawn out of the way and using your Rooks on the semi-open g-file to attack White’s castled king on g1. However, in most of those positions, your own king is either chilling (rather precariously) in the center on d7 or is castled queenside on c8 or b8. Opening up the g-file with the King castled on g8 is on-the-face an extremely dangerous proposition. You might not get enough time to scoot over to h8. So, your aggressive play on the kingside to create an imbalance and gain advantage might backfire.

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Mackenzie’s Immortal Game

I know, I know. Yet another cautionary tale? Yeah. Perhaps it is the tragedy of the French Defense that it gives rise to some of the most beautiful miniatures, albeit for White. This game, universally recognized as Mackenzie’s Immortal is sometimes also known as “The Lure of the Lady,” because it features a rather strange-looking move. Black allows White to ruin the pawn structure in front of his castled King, and then the King, instead of retreating to a safe corner, actually steps forward in anticipation of the White Queen. But what really steals the show is the picturesque checkmating combination at the end.

Pull out your chess set

If you don’t have one, or it is super-inconvenient right now, you can use the lichess interface below. In case you can’t see it, go to the study page directly.

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.exd5 The Delayed Exchange. Players of the Classical variation are familiar with this line, though the often played continuations result in equal positions. But we wouldn’t be memorizing this game if it was a boring draw, would we?

4…exd5 5.Nf3 Bd6 6.Bd3 O-O 7.O-O Nc6 8.Bg5 Ne7 Blunder. White can now capture on f6 and ruin Black’s pawn structure in front of the castled king. It is unclear if Mason considered this and allowed it, hoping to shut in the position with Ng6 in the short-run and then using the semi-open g-file later for his rooks to attack White’s castled King. Bold man, if he did. Better would have been counter-pinning the white knight on f3, constraining White’s kingside mobility. The critical line here also opens up the king’s position, but White cannot immediately take advantage of it until it dislodges the pin. With Black’s own queen centralized, the position would have been roughly equal. [8…Bg4 9.Nxd5 Bxh2+ 10.Kxh2 Qxd5 11.Bxf6 gxf6 12.c3 and equal.]

9.Bxf6 gxf6 10.Nh4 Clearing the path for the Queen to enter the attack. Also, should Knight on e7 jump to g6 to glue in the position, White can exchange his own Knight. With the light-squared bishop eyeing the h7 square, several checkmate threats may emerge.

10…Kg7 Anticipating that the White Queen would soon enter the party, the King steps forward to extend a welcoming hand. “The Lure of the Lady”, remember? This is the critical move. Black is probably just clearing the path for the rook (or both rooks), which can possibly be a strong counter-attack, while the King escapes via f8 to the relatively safer center. Alternatively, Black could have scooted over to h8 and play the game a pawn down with a damaged kingside pawn structure. [10…Kh8 11.Qh5 f5 12.Nxf5 Nxf5 13.Bxf5 Bxf5 14.Qxf5 c6 15.g3 and White is slightly better]

11.Qh5 Rh8 Black probably wants to bring both rooks into play, hence keeping g8 free.

12.f4 Clearing the path for a rook lift-and-slide: f1-f3-g3

12…c6 Adding a defender to the weak central pawn. Perhaps, best would have been to stick to the original plan, if it was so, of Ng6 [12…Ng6 13.Nxd5 Bxf4 14.Nxf4 Qxd4+ 15.Kh1 Nxf4 16.Nf5+ Bxf5 17.Qxf5 Nxd3 18.cxd3 and equal]

13. Rf3 Ng6 14.Raf1 Qc7 Pressuring the b8-h2 diagonal, but also clearing the back rank to connect rooks after the bishop is developed.

15.Ne2 With all play shut on the queen-side, White brings in his last piece also into the attack.

15…Bd7 16.Ng3 Rag8 And this is the moment we memorize this game for. Black probably played this move to let the king run without disconnecting his rooks. But now he’s completely lost. Mate in 6, with the White Queen leading the charge. Can you find the complete combination?

17.Qh6+ Kxh6 18.Nhf5+ Bxf5 19.Nxf5+ Kh5 20.g4+ Kxg4 21.Rg3+ Kh5 22.Be2# 1-0 White wins by checkmate.

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From my Chess Preparation Journal, dated 17-December-2020.