Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Tarrasch Trap, Steinitz Variation

The Tarrasch trap takes its name after the famous chess player Siegbert Tarrasch (1862-1934).

In fact, the Tarrasch trap refers to two different opening traps. Both in the Ruy Lopez, but in different variations. One in the Open variation, the second in the Steinitz variation.

Today’s trap refers to the Steinitz variation and appeared for the first time in the game Tarrasch-Marco, Dresden 1892. For that reason sometimes it is referred to as the Dresden Trap.

It is worth mentioning that this is a complicated trap and all the moves which Black plays seem to be logical and solid, so please study it carefully.

Tarrasch published his analysis about this trap in 1891 and 18 months later Georg Marco was the first victim. For the entire game, Tarrasch spent only five minutes!!