Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: French Rubinstein Trap

The attitude when playing chess can determine what happens in the game.

To face a game absent-mindedly can cause many troubles. We always have moments in the day when our brain relaxes and we don’t pay attention to what is going on around us. That mindset in chess can be disastrous.

From the beginning, the player needs to absolutely focus on the moves the opponent plays on the board. He/she needs to take a critical attitude and carefully assess even apparently natural moves. Otherwise, there is the risk of making an irreparable blunder.

All of you probably know the Rubinstein Trap, that I presented in a previous post. This trap is named after Akiba Rubinstein who fell on it in two different games. Both of them feature the Queen’s Gambit Declines.

Today’s miniature contains a similar pattern but in the French Defense. The player conducting the Black pieces distractedly played his moves assuming they were natural. But it turned out that he found himself in a lost position. Below the game:

It is never too late to remember Fischer’s famous sentence “Chess demands total concentration”

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