Elephant Trap
D51 · Played as black · Beginner · Traps & Tricks
The d7-knight looks pinned. It isn't, and White loses a piece finding out.
The main line
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Nbd7 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Nxd5 Nxd5 7.Bxd8 Bb4+ 8.Qd2 Bxd2+ 9.Kxd2 Kxd8
Strategic ideas
- Develop with …Nbd7 in the Queen's Gambit Declined and let White think d5 is free
- Rely on the …Bb4+ resource that makes the apparent pin an illusion
- Win a clean piece against a natural, greedy-looking Nxd5
- Learn one of the most common traps in all of 1.d4 chess
- Understand that a pin is only real if the pinned piece actually can't move
Key themes
- Tactics — A single in-between check turns a lost piece into a won one
- Counterattack — Black lets White take the queen and wins the material back with interest
- Solid — The trap arises from ordinary Queen's Gambit Declined development — nothing is risked to set it
Typical plans
This one appears in real games constantly, because every move Black plays is completely natural. The knight on d7 appears pinned against the queen, so Nxd5 looks like it wins a pawn. It doesn't: after …Nxd5 Bxd8, Black has …Bb4+! — a check that wins the bishop straight back and leaves Black a whole piece up. The lesson is the most useful one in tactics: before you take, check whether the pinned piece can move with a bigger threat.
Move by move
- d4 — White claims the centre.
- d5 — Black meets it symmetrically.
- c4 — White offers the Queen's Gambit.
- e6 — Black declines, defending d5 with the pawn.
- Nc3 — White develops and adds pressure to d5.
- Nf6 — Black develops and defends d5 again.
- Bg5 — White pins the f6-knight — a completely standard Queen's Gambit Declined move.
- Nbd7 — Black develops the knight to d7. Every move so far has been ordinary theory, and the trap is now armed.
- cxd5 — White trades in the centre.
- exd5 — Black recaptures with the pawn.
- Nxd5 — White takes on d5. It looks like a free pawn: the f6-knight is pinned by the g5-bishop, so it can't recapture. This is the move that loses a piece.
- Nxd5 — Black takes anyway. The pin was never real.
- Bxd8 — White takes the queen, which looks like the point.
- Bb4+ — Black checks. This is the move White missed — the bishop and the queen are both hanging, and the check comes first.
- Qd2 — White has to block; moving the king loses the bishop on d8 immediately.
- Bxd2+ — Black takes the queen back.
- Kxd2 — White recaptures with the king, having lost the right to castle.
- Kxd8 — Black takes the bishop on d8 with the king. The dust settles: Black is a knight up for a pawn, having lost the right to castle but with nothing else to show for it. Every single black move was natural QGD development — this is why the Elephant Trap catches so many people.