Final position — White is winning
King's Knight Opening: Wins a Piece
White wins in 9 moves with a decisive material gain. (Solderberg - Allen, 1990.??.??)
The moves
| 1. | e4 | e5 |
| 2. | Nf3 | d5 |
| 3. | exd5 | Bd6 |
| 4. | Nc3 | Nf6 |
| 5. | d4 | e4 |
| 6. | Ne5 | h6 |
| 7. | Nb5 | Bxe5 |
| 8. | dxe5 | Nxd5 |
| 9. | Qxd5 |
How the King's Knight Opening: Wins a Piece works
The King's Knight Opening: Wins a Piece is a classic chess opening trap arising from the King's knight opening. In this line White wins decisive material by move 9, punishing a natural-looking but losing idea from Black.
The full sequence runs 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d5 3.exd5 Bd6 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.d4 e4 6.Ne5 h6 7.Nb5 Bxe5 8.dxe5 Nxd5 9.Qxd5. 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 (Solderberg - Allen, 1990.??.??). Recognising it early lets you either spring it as White or sidestep it as Black.
Practice this trap move-by-move
Open the King's Knight Opening: Wins a Piece 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.