“When you see a good move, look for a better one”
— Emanuel Lasker

There were strong super tournaments even before the FTX Crypto Cup, the strongest chess tournament in the World. For example, in the nineteenth century, the strongest tournament to that date was the clash of chess giants in London in 1883.

London 1883 chess event was a double round-robin tournament, which means each player played two games with each, one with white and one with black pieces. This super-tournament was convincingly won by the Polish-German-British chess master Johannes Hermann Zuckertort, who three years later played a match against Wilhelm Steinitz for the title of World Chess Champion. But that’s another story. We are here today because of one master from the bottom of the standings at this tournament…

Our hero (or you can consider him anti-hero in this case) is James Henry Gerard Mortimer, American-born British chess player, journalist, and playwright. You will hardly remember any of his playwrights, but he used chess to make his name immortal through Mortimer’s Trap. You may have never read any of his playwrights, but as a chess player you may have fallen into his trap not even knowing it. Well, now you will know if you did…

Here is Berlin at the board. How exciting… Yawn…

Anti Berlin… and here Mortimer sets his trap:

Now it would not be profitable taking the offered pawn on e5, because it is will be paid by the rushing Bishop.

Bishop can flee to c4 or a4. If he retreats to c4, the Queen immediately jumps to a5 with check, and the Knight at e5 falls: 6.♗c4 ♛a5 +! 7.♘d2 ♛xe5. That’s why Bishop must retreat to a4, where the Queen will have a choice – whether to take a Knight or a Bishop. Tip: Take a centralized Knight immediately, because you have already blocked the Bishop quite nicely.

With a piece up and a significantly better position, the further course of the game should be just a matter of technique. But let’s go back to the sixth move, because in it, White has, in despair, a chance to set his deadly trap. So instead of pulling the Bishop on the a4, White can leave it under threat and play the Knight move:

If Black now greedily grabs the Bishop, he immediately gets a suffocated checkmate by a Knight on the d6! 6… cxb5 7.♘c4#. That is why in this case the winning move is 6… d6! and when the Bishop retreats to a4, a fork 7… b5! follows, ending Spanish shenanigans.

Nice trap, isn’t it? It has only one drawback: it is unlikely that any stronger player will fall into it. Mortimer attempted to use his trap three times in this tournament, but all three times unsuccessfully. Unfortunately for him, the players of that level do not fall for cheap tricks, and he lost all three games. You can download all the games from the famous 1883 London chess tournament from this link.

If by any chance you missed the second day of the strongest chess tournament in the World, you can watch at the recorded show and see how Magnus Carlsen started the game against Anish Giri with an Orangutan opening (1.b4?!)!

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