Final position — White delivers mate
King's Pawn Opening: Back-Rank Mate (Morin–Forscutt)
White wins in 5 moves by checkmate. (Morin - Forscutt, 1994.??.??)
The moves
| 1. | e4 | g5 |
| 2. | Nf3 | f6 |
| 3. | d4 | c6 |
| 4. | Ne5 | fxe5 |
| 5. | Qh5# |
How the King's Pawn Opening: Back-Rank Mate (Morin–Forscutt) works
The King's Pawn Opening: Back-Rank Mate (Morin–Forscutt) is a classic chess opening trap arising from the King's pawn opening. In this line White delivers checkmate on move 5, punishing a natural-looking but losing idea from Black.
The full sequence runs 1.e4 g5 2.Nf3 f6 3.d4 c6 4.Ne5 fxe5 5.Qh5#. 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 (Morin - Forscutt, 1994.??.??). 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 Pawn Opening: Back-Rank Mate (Morin–Forscutt) 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.