Queen's Gambit Accepted Trap
Black takes your c pawn and tries to keep it. Your queen then hits a rook, and saving it costs a piece.
46%of players rated around 800 guard the pawn with the c pawn here
Your opponent's Chess.com rating
Playing Black against it? Defend against it
Good to know
- Opening
- Queen's Gambit Accepted
- You play
- White
- The trap is set on
- Move 4
- What you win
- A piece, or a rook
- If they do not bite
- Your pawn back and an edge
- Games counted
- 2.1 million on Lichess
How to defend against the Queen's Gambit Accepted Trap
Guard with your bishop instead. 15% of players rated around 800 find it. No line opens to the rook, and no piece is lost.
Nothing lost, but White is better.
The way out, move by move, as BlackQueen's Gambit Accepted Trap moves
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e3 b5 4.a4 c6 5.axb5 cxb5 6.Qf3 Nc6 7.Qxc6+ Bd7 8.Qa6
- 1.d4Push your queen's pawn
A solid first move.
- 1…d5Black pushes the queen's pawn too
Black meets you in the centre.
- 2.c4Offer your c pawn
This is the Queen's Gambit. The pawn attacks Black's pawn on d5.
- 2…dxc4Black takes the pawn
This is the Queen's Gambit Accepted. You will get the pawn back.
- 3.e3Push your e pawn one square
Your bishop now attacks the pawn on c4.
- 3…b5Black guards the pawn
Black tries to keep the extra pawn. This is the mistake.
- 4.a4Push your a pawn two squares
You attack the pawn that guards c4. You want the c pawn to back it up.
- 4…c6The c pawn backs it up
46% of players rated around 800 guard the b pawn this way. It will open a line to the rook.
- 5.axb5Take the b pawn
Black almost always takes back.
- 5…cxb5Black takes back
Now the long line from f3 to the corner is open.
- 6.Qf3Slide your queen to f3
The queen attacks the rook in the corner. Every way to block loses a piece.
- 6…Nc6The knight blocks
22% of them give up the knight to save the rook.
- 7.Qxc6+Take the knight with check
The bishop has to block.
- 7…Bd7The bishop blocks
Your queen is attacked. Step away.
- 8.Qa6Move your queen to a6
You are a knight up.
You win a knight.
See it one move at a timeQueen's Gambit Accepted Trap questions
What if they do not fall for the Queen's Gambit Accepted Trap?
54% of players rated around 800 play something else. Then your pawn back and an edge.
How do you defend against the Queen's Gambit Accepted Trap?
As Black, guard with your bishop instead. 15% of players rated around 800 find it. No line opens to the rook, and no piece is lost. Nothing lost, but White is better.
What do you win with the Queen's Gambit Accepted Trap?
A piece, or a rook. In the main line, you win a knight.
At what rating does the Queen's Gambit Accepted Trap work?
It works best against players around 1700, where 56% guard the pawn with the c pawn. Against players under 400, 30% do.
More traps
All opening trapsCounted from the rated blitz, rapid and classical games on Lichess that reached this position. Ratings are shown as Chess.com ratings: the games are grouped by Lichess rating, which runs higher, and each group is named by the Chess.com rating it comes to in ChessGoals' comparison of players with an account on both. A rating with fewer than 300 such games shows no number.