Mousetrap Gambit - Engine Analysis - Part 1
THE MOUSETRAP GAMBIT
Recently in a the Gambit Gang forum I posted a short Mousetrap Gambit game. A few people have never seen this gambit and wanted more analysis. Instead of posting my analysis to the private confines of the group, I decided to post in my blog and share with all.
The Mousetrap Gambit was first brought to my attention in the Unorthodox Chess Openings group in the YahooGroups site. Nikolay Kostov was the main submitter to this gambit and I encourage all to find more info on him or join the UCO group and search for his previous posts. They are very enlightening as he is an endless pursuer of uncommon lines and provides great analysis on all games provided. After going through some of his games I searched online for more games and really found none. There were a few here and there but nothing substantial. If I remember correctly there was only 1 game on the chess.com game explorer.... but I'm sure not many masters play the Mousetrap Gambit or even the Owens Defense at that. I was lucky in my search though when I found this little gem: ChessCafe.com : Over the Horizons - Mousetrap Gambit by Stephan Bucker. This article pushed me even farther to research this gambit and try it in a few games. It was really this next excerpt that spurred my interest:
"The text move is the key to the whole Mousetrap concept. The black b7- bishop (“the mouse”) has left its mouse-hole to eat the white “cheese” e4. Now the trap closes with a snap (4 d5!). Obviously the mouse is not dead, but it seems the trap has hit her tail, as she cannot return to b7. Back to chess – here it also makes sense to separate the bishop from its “hole.” Without the bishop, the pawn structure a7-b6-c7 is weakened. And there is more – the whole black position is in some disorder. The Latin phrase “divide et impera” (divide and conquer) characterizes White’s intentions."
Now as a frequent UCO player and Gambiteer I have been accustomed to giving up pawns or pieces for developmental gains or initiative but never to divide up the enemy camp. This idea sealed the deal. I went home, fired up my chess engines, and started up a bunch of games. I found some main lines and went through many games. After about an hour or two of research I jumped onto Chess.com's Live Room and was lucky enough to find someone who played the 1...b6 Owen's Defense. This was my first Mousetrap Gambit game and it went waaaaaay better than expected. Short and Sweet.
