The Légal Trap or Blackburne Trap (also known as Légal Pseudo-Sacrifice and Légal Mate ) is a chess opening trap , characterized by a queen sacrifice followed by checkmate involving three minor pieces if Black accepts the sacrifice. The trap is named after the French player Sire de Légall . Joseph Henry Blackburne , a British master and one of the world's top five players in the latter part of the 19th century, set the trap on many occasions.
21-789: There are a number of ways the trap can arise; the one below shows a natural move sequence from a simultaneous exhibition in Paris. André Cheron , one of France's leading players, won with the trap as White against Jeanlose: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 d6 4. Nc3 Bg4 ?! 5. h3 5... Bh5 ? (diagram) 6. Nxe5 ! 6... Bxd1 ?? 7. Bxf7+ Ke7 8. Nd5 # The original game featured Légal playing at rook odds (without Ra1) against Saint Brie in Paris 1750: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bc4 Bg4?! 4. Nc3 g6? 5. Nxe5 Bxd1?? 6. Bxf7+ Ke7 7. Nd5# 1–0 1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 d6 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. Nc3 Bg4 5. Nxe5? Bxd1?? 6. Bxf7+ Ke7 7. Nd5# 1–0 A mating pattern where
42-524: A chess exchange trip to Beijing, China . There, he played (and defeated) the reigning women's world champion, Xu Yuhua , as part of an inter-university match. During high school and college, Esserman trained under IM Calvin Blocker , GM Anatoly Lein , and later GM William Lombardy . In a trip to Russia, he also studied briefly with Igor Zaitsev . After graduation, he returned to Boston in 2008 to promote local chess and chess education by serving on
63-459: A fixed amount of time. In most regular simuls, the exhibitor plays White in all the games and the individual participants are of varying playing strengths (though they are typically below master class). In clock simuls all the games are played as normal tournament games and are timed by a chess clock. These simuls require the exhibitor to accept a substantial time handicap since their clock continues to run on all boards. These simuls typically involve
84-517: A half-point behind a 7-way tie for 1st. Esserman's games have been featured for their instructional value and deep tactical ideas in Larry Christiansen 's popular Internet Chess Club broadcast, "Attack with LarryC" on 11 March 2009, 25 November 2009, and 17 August 2011. In February 2016, Esserman competed in the prestigious Gibraltar Masters chess festival. There he defeated former world championship challenger Nigel Short . Later in
105-459: A hundred Kings Pawn E4 opening and the matches lasted anywhere from thirty minutes to a full eight hours. Many top level players were involved and the exhibition lasted for just over eight hours. IM Marc Esserman won 82 of the games played with 11 ending in a draw. A less popular variation of simultaneous exhibition is the tandem simultaneous exhibition , also known as leapfrog simultaneous exhibition, where more than one (usually two) experts play
126-413: A large circle or square and the exhibitor walks from board to board in a fixed order. Each individual participant is expected to make a move when the exhibitor arrives at their board. The exhibitor may pause briefly before playing their move, but will typically attempt to avoid lengthy pauses because too many such pauses will cause the exhibition to continue for an extended period. Longer exhibitions increase
147-588: A number of opponents, making successive moves without consulting one another. Marc Esserman Marc Esserman (born July 28, 1983) is an American chess player who currently holds the FIDE title of International Master (IM). Esserman began playing chess at the age of 7. Scholastic competition resulted in two national team titles in 1994 and 1995. In April 1997, at the first-ever Super Nationals in Knoxville, Tennessee , he went undefeated (7–0) to become
168-569: A pinned knight moves, allowing the capture of the player's queen but leading to a checkmate with three minor pieces, occasionally occurs at lower levels of play, though masters would not normally fall for it. According to Bjerke ( Spillet i mitt liv ), the Légal Trap has ensnared countless unwary players. One author writes that "Blackburne sprang it several hundreds of times during his annual tours." Bibliography Simultaneous exhibition A simultaneous exhibition or simultaneous display
189-408: A relatively small number of individual participants whose playing strength is at or near master class. Occasionally, grandmasters have given blindfold simultaneous displays. In such displays, the exhibitor does not look at any of the boards, but retains all the moves of the games in their head. The opponents utilize boards and pieces in the standard fashion, but their moves are communicated verbally to
210-456: A spectacular game that has been widely republished in chess database top game selections, in print, in chess videos, and in chess blogs. In particular, GM Kevin Spraggett prefaced his game analysis by observing that "Esserman had already established a reputation for producing some Tal-like masterpieces." Due to a late-round loss, Esserman finished in a multi-way tie for 8th place with 7/9,
231-413: Is a board game exhibition (commonly chess or Go ) in which one player (typically of high rank, such as a grandmaster or dan-level player) plays multiple games at a time with a number of other players. Such an exhibition is often referred to simply as a " simul ". In a regular simul, no chess clocks are used (if they are involved it is called a clock simul ). The boards are usually arranged in
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#1732797840234252-608: The K–8 co-champion, edging out several players rated over 400 points higher. In March 1999, Esserman tied for 1st in the Florida State Championship, again with a perfect score. Press coverage of Esserman's chess career continued while an undergraduate at Harvard College . There, he was active promoting chess on campus, serving as captain of the Harvard Chess Club for four years, and helping to organize
273-828: The Miami Open (2008) with 6½/9 and reported on the top performances, including his own brilliancy in the Smith–Morra Gambit against fellow IM Justin Sarkar. He tied for 2nd at the Wunsiedel Schachfest in Wunsiedel , Germany (2011). On June 20, 2010, he achieved an upset in the New York Invitational Tournament against former U.S. champion Joel Benjamin . In August 2011, at the 112th US Open, he defeated Loek van Wely in
294-647: The Reykjavik Open, Esserman drew grandmasters Richárd Rapport and Alexander Beliavsky . Esserman has given lectures and simuls in his specialty opening, the Smith–Morra Gambit , at various chess clubs. He is the author of the book Mayhem in the Morra! , published in 2012. He is an occasional contributor to Chess Life , and frequent contributor to the United States Chess League news blog. Marc Esserman continues to teach on
315-530: The board of directors of the Boylston Chess Club and representing the city of Boston in the United States Chess League . As a member of the Boston Blitz , he has demonstrated a high winning percentage with a lifetime league score of 75%, ranking him No. 6 league-wide. In the 2009–2010 season and the 2010–2011 season, six out of his eight games placed either 1st or 2nd in the league's game of
336-513: The exhibitor by an arbiter or intermediary. Dutch grandmaster Jan Hein Donner offered the following advice to a player taking a board at a simultaneous exhibition: If you are to stand a chance of scoring a half or a full point, there are a few things to bear in mind: Here are some significant games from simultaneous exhibitions: The internet has allowed for the creation of chess game services wherein people may play an opponent from anywhere in
357-423: The risk of fatigue-induced blunders on the part of the exhibitor, especially since the individual participants remaining at the end tend to be the stronger players who represent the exhibitor's most challenging opponents. As games are finished off, they are usually not replaced and only a few games will remain in progress at the end of the exhibition. At this point clocks are sometimes introduced with each side getting
378-616: The tournament, he had the opportunity to face five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand . As White, Esserman played his favorite Morra Gambit. The players agreed to a draw after a repetition of moves, but many commentators felt that Esserman could have won. A few weeks later in the Capelle-La-Grande International, Esserman defeated Grandmaster Yuri Vovk , again with the Morra Gambit, and drew world champion candidate Artur Yusupov . In March 2016, during
399-914: The week contest—with Esserman winning four of those awarded games. Some of these games have been published for Esserman's "brilliant performance" and sacrificial, tactical qualities. Esserman placed 3rd in the League's 2010 Game of the Year contest. A number of his games have been recorded in The New York Times , The Boston Globe , the New York Post , The Washington Times , The Scotsman , La Libre Belgique , Новости шахмат ("Chess News"), and other newspapers. Esserman has achieved notable results in major European and U.S. open and invitational tournaments, in which he has defeated numerous grandmasters. Pre-title major tournament experience
420-467: The world. Popular sites such as Lichess may have many thousands of active online games as well as tens of thousands of viewers during any time of day around the world. This new online chess paradigm allows for world class players to be actively playing chess as well as teaching and giving demonstrations. On 13 April 2019, a simultaneous exhibition was hosted by Lichess for International Master Marc Esserman who engaged 100 players. He rapidly moved through
441-836: Was auspicious with a tie for 1st in the 2003 Atlantic Open alongside four experienced GMs, in which he also split the U2400 1st prize. After a return to serious tournament chess in 2008, IM norms and top finishes followed quickly. He was a co-winner at the Eastern Class Championship in Sturbridge (2009), the New York State Championship (2010), and the Liberty Bell Open in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2011). He tied for 3rd at
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