In my recent video lesson, I’m talking about the Magnus Trap (also known as the Magnus Smith Trap). It is a chess opening trap in the classical variation of the Sicilian Defense, named after three-time Canadian chess champion Magnus Smith (1869–1934). It is solid and super-effective to play against the Sicilian Defense.

It happens after the moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bc4 g6?! and Black falls into the trap 7.Nxc6 bxc6 8.e5!

magnus smith trap

The key move here is 6.Bc4, which is played by Bobby Fischer a lot of times. It sets the stage for the powerful attack as it looks at the f7-square, targeting the Black king.

Watch the instructive video lesson where I talk about the various replies of Black and how you can play the best continuation as White:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhX0U9BfIFw

You can find the PGN of these traps below:

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