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I recently learnt of a rather devious queen trap line out of the Leonhardt Gambit against the Qa5-line of the Scandinavian Defense (1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. b4).

After (4. Qxb4), rather than the typical gambit line of (5. Rb1), we play a couple of seemingly aggressive and dubious moves. The apparently superficial attacks hide a cunning plan. First, (5. Nb5) attacks the c7 square, which would come with a fork of Black’s king and rook. The single most common response for Black is (5… Qa5), a natural move with the queen back to the a5 square to defend the c7 square.

Next, White plays (6. Bc4), a rapid developing move that doesn’t seem threatening. It’s in a natural enough square that it might not raise suspicions. Black didn’t see the danger and so played (6… c6) attacking my knight. This move was a blunder as it the trap can now be sprung:

• a brilliant [+1.8] capture of the f7 pawn with a bishop sacrifice (7. Bxf7+ Kxf7)!
• the wayward queen provides another check and Black blocks the attack (8. Qh5+ g6)
• however, the knight now gives a check, with a discovered attack on the queen, and Black’s queen is lost for the cost of two minor pieces! (9. Nd6+ exd6 10. Qxa5)

Here, White is completely winning at better than [+5].

My opponent, a fellow Aussie, is a great sport and plays on. I maintain my advantage until move 21, when I made a game-ending Botez Gambit. On the Chessnut Air board, I lost track of the diagonals and straight up hung my queen! The evaluation went from better than [+7] to almost [-10]!

I try to play on, attempting to play an aggressive line and hoping for Black to make a mistake allowing me to promote a pawn. However, they played solidly and being down two minor pieces made it very difficult. On move 29 against a hopeless position [-18], I opted to resign. GG!

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/64625588757

[Event "Live Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2022.12.12"]
[Round "-"]
[White "vitualis"]
[Black "lindsaycheg"]
[Result "0-1"]
[Timezone "UTC"]
[ECO "B01"]
[ECOUrl "https://www.chess.com/openings/Scandinavian-Defense-Mieses-Kotrc-Main-Line-Leonhardt-Gambit"]
[UTCDate "2022.12.12"]
[UTCTime "23:11:01"]
[WhiteElo "1350"]
[BlackElo "1315"]
[TimeControl "1800"]
[Termination "lindsaycheg won by resignation"]
[StartTime "23:11:01"]
[EndDate "2022.12.12"]
[EndTime "23:39:28"]
[Link "https://www.chess.com/game/live/64625588757"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. b4 {Scandinavian Defense: Leonhardt Gambit
(around [-0.1 to -0.2] according to Stockfish 15.1 NNUE @ depth 40)} 4... Qxb4
5. Nb5 $6 {[%c_effect b5;square;b5;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true] A dubious
move [-1] that sets up a brilliant queen trap} 5... Qa5 6. Bc4 $6 {[%c_effect
c4;square;c4;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true]} 6... c6 $4 {[%c_effect
c6;square;c6;type;Blunder;persistent;true] A blunder [+1.78] and the trap is
about to be sprung} 7. Bxf7+ $3 {[%c_effect
f7;square;f7;type;Brilliant;persistent;true] Brilliant bishop sacrifice $1} 7...
Kxf7 $4 {[%c_effect f7;square;f7;type;Blunder;persistent;true][%c_arrow
e8d8;keyPressed;none;from;e8;opacity;0.8;to;d8;persistent;false][%c_highlight
d8;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;d8;persistent;false] And Black falls into
the trap [+5.10]} 8. Qh5+ $1 {[%c_effect
h5;square;h5;type;GreatFind;persistent;true]} 8... g6 9. Nd6+ $1 {[%c_effect
d6;square;d6;type;GreatFind;persistent;true]} 9... exd6 10. Qxa5 {And on move
10, Black loses their queen for two minor pieces $1} 10... b6 11. Qg5 Nd7 12. Nf3
Be7 13. Qf4+ Ngf6 14. Ng5+ Kf8 15. Ne6+ $6 {[%c_effect
e6;square;e6;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true]} 15... Kf7 16. Ng5+ Ke8 17. Ne6 $6
{[%c_effect e6;square;e6;type;Inaccuracy;persistent;true]} 17... Nd5 18. Qc4 $4
{[%c_effect c4;square;c4;type;Blunder;persistent;true][%c_arrow
f4g3;keyPressed;none;from;f4;opacity;0.8;to;g3;persistent;false][%c_highlight
g3;keyPressed;none;opacity;0.8;square;g3;persistent;false] I make a blunder
[+1.63] where I allow Black to gain some momentum with my queen being pushed
around by the two knights, but at this point, I'm still ahead} ({This would have
been the best line to play...} 18. Qg3 {Better than [+5]}) 18... Bb7 $4
{[%c_effect b7;square;b7;type;Blunder;persistent;true] In a complicated
position, Black returns the blunder [+6]} 19. Bb2 $1 {[%c_effect
b2;square;b2;type;GreatFind;persistent;true]} 19... Rg8 20. O-O b5 21. Qh4 $4
{[%c_effect h4;square;h4;type;Blunder;persistent;true] A game-ending Botez
Gambit [-9.75] $1 On the Chessnut Air board, I somehow didn't see the diagonal and
hung my queen $1  It's all downhill from here...} 21... Bxh4 22. Rae1 Kf7 23. g3
Be7 24. f4 Nb4 25. Ng5+ Ke8 26. Bf6 Nxf6 27. Ne6 Nfd5 28. Re4 Nxc2 29. f5 Kd7
{[%c_effect d7;square;d7;type;Winner,g1;square;g1;type;ResignWhite] I was hoping
that Black would blunder back where I advance a pawn supported by two rooks, but
they saw the ploy $1 Without any hope [-17.6] I opted to resign} 0-1