Inner Circle Crushes Leeds A and Leeds B
A Caro-Kann trap that turns a solid opening into a wreck in twelve moves.
In 1938, at Plymouth, Alexander Alekhine sat across the board from Ronald MacKay Bruce and demonstrated exactly how quickly the reliable Caro-Kann Defence can fall apart when Black drifts on autopilot. Step through the game below, move by move, to see precisely where it went wrong.
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Chess pieces by cburnett, CC BY-SA 3.0
Alekhine vs Bruce — Plymouth, 1938
Where It Went Wrong
7...Bh7
Natural-looking, but passive. The bishop retreats to a square where it does nothing for the rest of the game, while White quietly builds a huge lead in development and space on the kingside.
10...Nf6??
The losing move. It looks like ordinary development, but it walks straight into a knight sacrifice on f7 that rips open the black king in the centre of the board.
11.Nxf7!
The point of the whole setup. Giving up a knight to drag the king out into the open, when the resulting attack is worth far more than the piece.
By 12.Qxe6+, Black resigned. The king on f7 has nowhere safe to go, and White is both up in material and running a decisive attack.