Stafford Gambit Trap
The Stafford Gambit Trap: White pins the knight with 6.Bg5?? and Black ignores it. 6...Nxe4! gives up the queen and mates with two bishops.
Black gives a pawn in the Petrov for fast development and a pile of tricks, made famous online by Eric Rosen. The gambit is unsound: with accurate play White is two pawns better by the engine. The catch is that the natural moves lose.
How the Stafford Gambit Trap works
Click a card to see it on the board, then play the punishment yourself.
How often does it work?
Counted in real rated Lichess games, not estimated.
| Rating | Reached the position | Played 6.Bg5? | Fall rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1200–1400 | 606 games | 104 | 17% |
| 1500–1700 | 835 games | 89 | 11% |
| 1900–2100 | 696 games | 18 | 3% |
Sample: up to 1,000,000 rated Lichess games per rating band (May 2024), same move order only.
Among players rated 1800 and higher, 6.Bg5? was played in 2,130 of the games our puzzles are drawn from. Strong players fall for it too.
How to avoid the Stafford Gambit Trap
What White should play instead.
Other versions of the trap
The same idea from a different move order.
Now spot it in a real game
Knowing a trap by name is not the same as seeing it at the board. Solve positions from real games until the pattern fires by itself.
Stafford Gambit Trap
Getting there…6.Bg5 pins the knight to the queen, and Black moves it anyway. After 6...Nxe4! 7.Bxd8 Bxf2+ 8.Ke2 Bg4 it is mate. If White declines the queen with 7.dxe4, then 7...Bxf2+ 8.Ke2 Bg4+ wins the white queen instead.