Final position — White is winning
Philidor's Defence: White Queen Trap (Koltanowski–Cable)
White wins in 6 moves with a decisive material gain. (Koltanowski - Cable, San Francisco 1960)
The moves
| 1. | e4 | e5 |
| 2. | Nf3 | d6 |
| 3. | d4 | g6 |
| 4. | dxe5 | dxe5 |
| 5. | Qxd8+ | Kxd8 |
| 6. | Nxe5 |
How the Philidor's Defence: White Queen Trap (Koltanowski–Cable) works
The Philidor's Defence: White Queen Trap (Koltanowski–Cable) is a classic chess opening trap arising from the Philidor's defence. In this line White wins decisive material by move 6, punishing a natural-looking but losing idea from Black.
The full sequence runs 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 g6 4.dxe5 dxe5 5.Qxd8+ Kxd8 6.Nxe5. Each move looks reasonable, which is exactly why the trap is so effective over the board — Black walks into it while trying to play "normal" developing moves.
This pattern is well known from master and correspondence play (Koltanowski - Cable, San Francisco 1960). Recognising it early lets you either spring it as White or sidestep it as Black.
Practice this trap move-by-move
Open the Philidor's Defence: White Queen Trap (Koltanowski–Cable) in the Trapsterapp to play it out on a live board, drill it in practice mode, and learn how to avoid it when it's set for you — along with the full library of chess traps and gambits, fully offline.