Mortimer Trap
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Mortimer Trap
The Mortimer Trap is a chess opening trap in the Ruy Lopez named after James Mortimer. The Mortimer Trap is a true trap in the sense that Black deliberately plays an inferior move to tempt White into making a mistake. Analysis 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 :The trap begins with Black playing the Berlin Defense to the Ruy Lopez. Although the Berlin was much more popular in the 19th century than in the 20th, it "became the height of theory when Vladimir Kramnik used it as his main defense to defeat Garry Kasparov in their 2000 World Championship match." 4. d3 :White plays a quiet alternative to the more common 4.0-0, 4.d4, or 4.Nc3 (the last would transpose to the Four Knights Game). I. A. Horowitz and Fred Reinfeld wrote that 4.d3 is " Steinitz's move, with which he scored many spectacular successes during his long reign as World Champion." 4... Ne7 :The Mortimer Defense, intending to reroute the knight to g6. This rare move loses and thus is inferior to other moves, bu ...
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Chess Opening
A chess opening or simply an opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established theory; the other phases are the middlegame and the endgame. Many opening sequences have standard names such as the "Sicilian Defense". ''The Oxford Companion to Chess'' lists 1,327 named openings and variants, and there are many others with varying degrees of common usage. Opening moves that are considered standard are referred to as "book moves", or simply "book". When a game begins to deviate from known opening theory, the players are said to be "out of book". In some openings, "book" lines have been worked out for over 30 moves, as in the classical King's Indian Defense and in the Najdorf variation of the Sicilian Defense. Professional chess players spend years studying openings, and continue doing so throughout their careers, as opening theory continues to evolve. Players at the club level also study openings but the importance of the opening phase is smaller ...
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King (chess)
The king (♔, ♚) is the most important piece in the game of chess. It may move to any adjoining square; it may also perform a move known as castling. If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of on the next move. If this cannot be done, the king is said to be in checkmate, resulting in a loss for that player. A player cannot make any move that places their own king in check. Despite this, the king can become a strong offensive piece in the endgame or, rarely, the middlegame. In algebraic notation, the king is abbreviated by the letter K among English speakers. The white king starts the game on e1; the black king starts on e8. Unlike all other pieces, only one king per player can be on the board at any time, and the kings are never removed from the board during the game. Placement and movement The white king starts on e1, on the first to the right of the queen from White's perspective. The black k ...
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Encyclopedia Of Chess Openings
The ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' () is a reference work describing the state of opening theory in chess, originally published in five volumes from 1974 to 1979 by the Serbian company Šahovski Informator ( Chess Informant). It is currently undergoing its fifth edition. ''ECO'' may also refer to the opening classification system used by the encyclopedia. Overview Both ''ECO'' and '' Chess Informant'' are published by the Belgrade-based company Šahovski Informator. The moves are taken from thousands of master games and from published analysis in ''Informant'' and compiled by the editors, most of whom are grandmasters, who select the lines which they consider most relevant or critical. The chief editor since the first edition has been Aleksandar Matanović. The openings are provided in an ''ECO'' table that concisely presents the opening lines considered most critical by the editors. ''ECO'' covers the openings in more detail than rival single volume publications such a ...
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Modern Chess Openings
''Modern Chess Openings'' (usually called ) is a reference book on chess openings, first published in 1911 by the British players Richard Clewin Griffith (1872–1955) and John Herbert White (1880–1920). The fifteenth edition was published in 2008. Harry Golombek called it "the first scientific study of the openings in the twentieth century".Harry Golombek (editor-in-chief), ''Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess'', Crown Publishers, 1977, p. 202. . History Although Bilguer's ''Handbuch des Schachspiels'' was more authoritative at the time ''MCO'' was first published, it was last published between 1912 and 1916, and was becoming outdated by the 1930s. ''MCO'' was popular with English-speaking players and has continued to be updated throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, with fifteen editions from 1911 through 2008. Early editions were small enough to fit in a pocket (the first edition was 190 pages), but later editions grew and the fifteenth and most recent version is 768 ...
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Swindle (chess)
In chess, a swindle is a ruse by which players in a losing position trick their opponent and thereby achieve a win or draw instead of the expected loss. It may also refer more generally to obtaining a win or draw from a clearly losing position. I. A. Horowitz and Fred Reinfeld distinguish among "traps", "pitfalls", and "swindles". In their terminology, a "trap" refers to a situation where players go wrong through their own efforts. In a "pitfall", the beneficiary of the pitfall plays an active role, creating a situation where a plausible move by the opponent will turn out badly. A "swindle" is a pitfall adopted by a player who has a clearly lost game. Horowitz and Reinfeld observe that swindles, "though ignored in virtually all chess books", "play an enormously important role in over-the-board chess, and decide the fate of countless games". Although "swindling" in general usage is synonymous with cheating or fraud, in chess the term does not imply that the swindler has done anyt ...
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Treatise
A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject and its conclusions." Treatise." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Accessed September 12, 2020. A monograph is a treatise on a specialized topic. Etymology The word 'treatise' first appeared in the fourteenth century as the Medieval English word ''tretis'', which evolved from the Medieval Latin ''tractatus'' and the Latin ''tractare'', meaning to treat or to handle. Historically significant treatises Table The works presented here have been identified as influential by scholars on the development of human civilization. Discussion of select examples Euclid's ''Elements'' Euclid's ''Elements'' has appeared in more editions than any other books except the ''Bible'' and is one of the most important mathematical treatises ever. It has been translated to nu ...
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Draw (chess)
In chess, there are a number of ways that a game can end in a draw, neither player winning. Draws are codified by various rules of chess including stalemate (when the player to move is not in check but has no legal move), threefold repetition (when the same position occurs three times with the same player to move), and the fifty-move rule (when the last fifty successive moves made by both players contain no or pawn move). Under the standard FIDE rules, a draw also occurs in a dead position (when no sequence of legal moves can lead to checkmate), most commonly when neither player has sufficient to checkmate the opponent. Unless specific tournament rules forbid it, players may agree to a draw at any time. Ethical considerations may make a draw uncustomary in situations where at least one player has a reasonable chance of winning. For example, a draw could be called after a move or two, but this would likely be thought unsporting. In the 19th century, some tournaments, notab ...
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Johannes Zukertort
Johannes Hermann Zukertort (Polish: ''Jan Hermann Cukiertort''; 7 September 1842 – 20 June 1888) was a Polish chess master. He was one of the leading world players for most of the 1870s and 1880s, but lost to Wilhelm Steinitz in the World Chess Championship 1886, which is generally regarded as the first World Chess Championship match. He was also defeated by Steinitz in 1872 in an unofficial championship. Zukertort filled his relatively short life with a wide range of other achievements as a soldier, musician, linguist, journalist and political activist. Early life and non-chess achievements Zukertort was born on 7 September 1842 in Lublin, Congress Poland, Russian Empire as Jan Hermann Cukiertort. He said that his mother was the Baroness Krzyżanowska (Krzyzanovska). His father was a Protestant Christian missionary of Polish descent. Because the Christian Protestant mission among the Jewish population in Russian-occupied Poland was considered illegal and heretical, th ...
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Josef Noa
Joseph Noa (21 October 1856, Nagybecskerek – 1 June 1903, Budapest) was a Hungarian chess master. He was a judge by profession. Although an amateur he played in a number of tournaments throughout the 1880s and 1890s and defeated some of the famous players of his time. In 1880, he took 8th in Graz (Adolf Schwarz, Miksa Weiss and Johannes von Minckwitz won). In 1881, he took 15th in Berlin (2nd DSB Congress; Joseph Henry Blackburne won). In 1882, he took 17th in Vienna (Wilhelm Steinitz and Szymon Winawer won). In 1883, he took 11th in London (Johannes Zukertort won). In 1885, he took 15th in Hamburg (4th DSB Congress; Isidor Gunsberg won). In 1887, he took 13th in Hamburg (5th DSB Congress; George Henry Mackenzie won). In 1892, he tied for 14-15th in Dresden (7th DSB Congress; Siegbert Tarrasch won). In 1896, he took 12th in Budapest (Mikhail Chigorin and Rudolf Charousek won). A variation of the Nimzo-Indian Defence The Nimzo-Indian Defence is a chess opening characterised ...
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Samuel Rosenthal
Samuel Rosenthal (7 September 1837 – 12 September 1902) was a Polish-born French chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ... player. Chess historian Edward Winter wrote, "He dedicated his life to chess-playing, touring, writing, teaching and analysing. Despite only occasional participation in first-class events, he scored victories over all the leading masters of the time (Adolf Anderssen, Anderssen, Joseph Henry Blackburne, Blackburne, Mikhail Chigorin, Chigorin, George Henry Mackenzie, Mackenzie, James Mason (chess player), Mason, Louis Paulsen, Paulsen, Wilhelm Steinitz, Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort, Zukertort). He also acquired world renown as an unassuming showman who gave large Glossary of chess#Simultaneous exhibition, simultaneous displays and blindfold ...
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Berthold Englisch
Berthold Englisch (9 July 1851, Osoblaha, Hotzenplotz – 19 October 1897, Vienna) was a leading Austrian chess master. Englisch was born in Austrian Silesia (then Austria-Hungary) into a Jews, Jewish family. He earned his living as a stock-market agent. He won the tournaments at Leipzig 1879 (the 1st DSB Congress), at Wiesbaden 1880 (ex-equo with Joseph Henry Blackburne, Blackburne and Adolf Schwarz, A. Schwarz, ahead of Emil Schallopp, Schallopp, James Mason (chess player), Mason, Henry Bird (chess player), Bird, Szymon Winawer, Winawer, etc.) and at Vienna 1896 (''Quadrangular''). He lost two matches against Vincenz Hruby in 1882 and to Emanuel Lasker in 1890, both scoring 1.5 : 3.5, and drew a match with Harry Nelson Pillsbury 2.5 : 2.5 (+0 –0 =5) in 1896, all in Vienna.Welcome to the Chessmetrics site [Baidu]  


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London 1883 Chess Tournament
The London 1883 chess tournament was a strong chess tournament among most of the leading players of the day. It was won convincingly by Johannes Zukertort (22 points out of 26) ahead of Wilhelm Steinitz (with 19 points). Remarkably, Zukertort was already assured of victory with three rounds to go, having scored an astonishing 22/23. He then lost his last three games against relatively weak players, probably due to exhaustion. The tournament established Zukertort as rivalling Steinitz to claim to be the best player in the world, and led to the World Chess Championship 1886 match between the two (the first official World Chess Championship match). The event was a double round-robin tournament. Marmaduke Wyvill contributed to organizing the tournament. The tournament was also notable for the first use of the double-sided chess clock, invented and manufactured by Thomas Bright Wilson of Manchester Chess Club. A common story relates to an incident that occurred at the tournament ...
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