Final position — White delivers mate
Queen's Pawn Game: Back-Rank Mate (Vogel–Krivec)
White wins in 7 moves by checkmate. (Vogel - Krivec, 2004.??.??)
The moves
| 1. | d4 | d5 |
| 2. | Bf4 | Nf6 |
| 3. | e3 | c5 |
| 4. | c3 | Qb6 |
| 5. | Qc2 | Bf5 |
| 6. | Qxf5 | Qxb2 |
| 7. | Qc8# |
How the Queen's Pawn Game: Back-Rank Mate (Vogel–Krivec) works
The Queen's Pawn Game: Back-Rank Mate (Vogel–Krivec) is a classic chess opening trap arising from the Queen's pawn game. In this line White delivers checkmate on move 7, punishing a natural-looking but losing idea from Black.
The full sequence runs 1.d4 d5 2.Bf4 Nf6 3.e3 c5 4.c3 Qb6 5.Qc2 Bf5 6.Qxf5 Qxb2 7.Qc8#. 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 (Vogel - Krivec, 2004.??.??). Recognising it early lets you either spring it as White or sidestep it as Black.
Practice this trap move-by-move
Open the Queen's Pawn Game: Back-Rank Mate (Vogel–Krivec) 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.