fredthebear: For clarification, "Blackburne's Trap" refers to a couple different traps that occur directly out of the opening and feature a centralized knight advance. These opening traps result in sudden checkmate of the uncastled king if the unwary opponent takes the bait. The reader can look up the Blackburne-Shilling Trap/Gambit a.k.a. Kostic's Trap or the "Oh my God!" Trap as played by Black against the Italian Game. It is dubious, but dangerous for the uninformed White player.
The main line runs 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4?! 4.Nxe5?! Qg5 5.Nxf7? Qxg2 6.Rf1 Qxe4+ 7.Be2 Nf3#, a smothered mate as the bishop is pinned. It's reported that Blackburne used this trap to win shillings from amateur opponents in money games.
Another version of "Blackburne's Trap" results in Legall's Mate (spelled different ways) which can occur in many different openings by either color, but most often arises in a double king pawn open game. Legall's Mate is named after Kermur, Sire De Legalle (1702-1792) and should not be affiliated by Mr. Blackburne's name IMHO, although Mr. Blackburne certainly employed such when the opportunity arose. After all, Legall taught chess to Philidor!
The most published version of Legall's Mate goes 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bc4 Bg4?! 4.Nc3 g6? 5.Nxe5 BxQd1?? 6.Bxf7+ Ke7 7.Nd5# 1–0. A famous version for the Black pieces occurs in Petrov's Defense: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nc6?! 4.NxNc6 dxc6 5.d3 Bc5 6.Bg5? Nxe4 7.BxQd8?? Bxf2+ 8.Ke2 Bg4# 0–1.
Joseph Henry Blackburne (1841-1924) was an entertaining chess showman and legendary attacker. It's no surprise that a handful of tactics and combinations are referred to Mr. Blackburne over the years, as his games displayed such maneuvers on multiple occasions. However, Mr. Blackburne did not necessarily invent all the weapons at his disposal.
Kibitzing
