The Scholar's Mate

Every beginner meets this trap, so meet it here first. It goes 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nc6 3. Qh5, and suddenly White is threatening checkmate on move four. The target is f7, the one square in Black's camp that nobody but the king defends. The queen attacks it along the diagonal, the bishop attacks it from c4: attacked twice, defended once.

After 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 Nc6 3. Qh5. Queen and bishop both aim at f7, which only the king defends.

Here is how the trap catches people. Black plays 3...Nf6??, which looks perfect: it develops a knight and attacks the queen. But it does nothing for f7, and a threat you do not answer is a threat that lands.

3...Nf6 attacks the queen but leaves f7 to its fate. The threat is still on.

4. Qxf7#. The king cannot capture the queen because the c4 bishop guards her, no piece can block a check delivered from the square right next to the king, and every escape square is covered or occupied. Checkmate, in four moves.

4. Qxf7#. The bishop guards the queen, so the king cannot take her, and he has nowhere to run.

Now the cure, and it is beautiful: 3...g6. One pawn move blocks the queen's diagonal to f7 and attacks her at the same time. It is safe because the knight on c6 already guards e5: if White grabs the pawn with 4. Qxe5+, Black simply answers 4...Nxe5 and wins the whole queen. 3...Qe7 works too, adding a second defender to f7. Either way the queen must retreat, and Black develops while she runs.

The cure: 3...g6 blocks the diagonal to f7 and attacks the queen at the same time.

One last word: do not build your own games around this trap. Against anyone who knows the defence, you have just brought your queen out early, and you know from the last lesson how that story ends. Learn it to stop it.