[Event "Opening Traps in the Ruy Lopez: #1 The Mortimer Trap"]
[Site "https://lichess.org/study/XJ2bd94v/62nu96Ai"]
[Date "2008"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Zhuralev, Sergey"]
[Black "Royset, Jon Kristian"]
[Result "1-0"]
[Annotator "https://lichess.org/@/Jonnyx"]
[BlackElo "2157"]
[ECO "C65"]
[Opening "Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defense, Mortimer Trap"]
[UTCDate "2020.06.12"]
[UTCTime "11:32:13"]
[Variant "Standard"]
[WhiteElo "1985"]

{ You can watch the analyse of the game as a video aswell: https://youtu.be/e0oyhlZne4w The Mortimer Trap is a chess opening trap in the Ruy Lopez named after James Mortimer, who played the variation in the 1883 London tournament against Berthold Englisch, Samuel Rosenthal and Josef Noa, losing all three games. } 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 { The starting position of the Ruy Lopez. } 3... Nf6 { Black enters the Berlin Defence of the Ruy Lopez. } 4. d3 { A common move to defend the pawn on e4. Other options would have been: } ( 4. O-O { willing to enter the Berlin Endgame after the moves } 4... Nxe4 5. d4 Nd6 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. dxe5 Nf5 8. Qxd8+ Kxd8 { This position is one of the most analysed positions in chess. It's about equal. Black can no longer castle and has a doubled pawn on the c-file, but in compansation he has the bishop pair. White on the other hand has a weak pawn on e5 and without the queens on the board it's not so easy to exploid the position of blacks king. [%csl Gf8,Gc8,Rd8,Rc6,Rc7,Re5] } ) ( 4. Nc3 { transposes to the Four Knights Game. } ) ( 4. d4 { is an other option for white. } ) 4... Ne7 { Black intends to place his knight to g6 and sets a trap at the same time. It's only a rare guest in grandmaster games because it's a slow move that loses time. Its only the 4th move and you allready moved your knight twice and you really have to move it again soon, or your bishop on f8 will be blocked. Thats why the move is inferior to other moves like [%csl Rf8,Re5][%cal Gb8c6,Gc6e7,Ge7g6] } ( 4... Bc5 { black brings out his darksquared bishop before he solidifys the e5 pawn with the move d6. Game could continue } 5. c3 O-O 6. O-O d6 7. Nbd2 a6 8. Ba4 b5 9. Bc2 Bb6 10. h3 { with an equal game. White will play moves like Re1, Nf1 and Ng3 to gain control over the f5 square, while black will prepare the d5 break with moves as h6, Be6 and Re8 or with h6, Ne7-Ng6 and Bb7. [%cal Gd6d5,Gh7h6,Gf8e8,Gd8d7,Gc8e6,Rd2f1,Rf1e1,Rf1g3,Rg3f5] } ) 5. Nxe5 $2 { White falls for the trap! A better move would have been } ( 5. O-O { for example the game could continue with } 5... c6 6. Ba4 Ng6 { protecting the e5 pawn. [%cal Gg6e5] } 7. Re1 Bc5 8. c3 d6 9. Nbd2 O-O { as in the game Le, Quang Liem (2713) vs. Xiong, Jeffery (2691) in 2019. White will rerout the d2 knight to g3 to gain control over the f5 square, while black will drob back the bishop to b6 and try to push d5. The position is about equal. [%cal Gd6d5,Gc5b6,Rd2f1,Rf1g3,Rg3f5] } ) 5... c6 $1 6. Nc4 { White sets a trap himself and stops the Qa5+ move. } ( 6. Ba4 Qa5+ { [%cal Ga5e1,Ga5e5] } 7. Nc3 Qxe5 { and black is winning. } ) ( 6. Bc4 Qa5+ { [%cal Ga5e1,Ga5e5] } 7. Nc3 Qxe5 { and black is winning. } ) 6... d6 ( 6... cxb5 $4 { looses to } 7. Nd6# ) 7. Ba4 ( 7. Nc3 cxb5 8. Nxb5 { was played in the game and here black whould have played } 8... Ng6 { to stop white from playing Bf4. Beeing a piece up against two pawns black should win the game. [%cal Gg6f4,Rc1f4] } ( 8... Nc6 9. Bf4 Ne5 { was played in the game, but here white has some counter play, so I wouldn't advice you to go for this line. } ) ) 7... b5 { Attacking the knight and the bishop at the same time. [%cal Gb5c4,Gb5a4] } 8. Nxd6+ Qxd6 9. Bb3 Ng6 { black is up a piece against two pawns and will most likely win the game. } 1-0