Final position — White is winning
Alekhine's Defence: Opening Trap (Wall–Rasmussen)
White wins in 9 moves with a decisive material gain. (Wall - Rasmussen, Tacoma 1970)
The moves
| 1. | e4 | Nf6 |
| 2. | e5 | Nd5 |
| 3. | d4 | d6 |
| 4. | Nf3 | e6 |
| 5. | Qd3 | dxe5 |
| 6. | Nxe5 | Qf6 |
| 7. | Qg3 | Nd7 |
| 8. | Bg5 | Qf5 |
| 9. | Bd3 |
How the Alekhine's Defence: Opening Trap (Wall–Rasmussen) works
The Alekhine's Defence: Opening Trap (Wall–Rasmussen) is a classic chess opening trap arising from the Alekhine's defence. 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 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 e6 5.Qd3 dxe5 6.Nxe5 Qf6 7.Qg3 Nd7 8.Bg5 Qf5 9.Bd3. 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 (Wall - Rasmussen, Tacoma 1970). Recognising it early lets you either spring it as White or sidestep it as Black.
Practice this trap move-by-move
Open the Alekhine's Defence: Opening Trap (Wall–Rasmussen) 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.