Traps and Zaps

I woke up at 6am this morning, irritated about how a game went down at the previous day's tournament. One of my students, Jackson was on board one for three straight games and was feeling pretty good about his chances against an experienced player from Sarasota who was also undefeated at 4-0. Jackson lost to a trap that I thought wasn't widely known, I even dismissed a parent's concern over it. "I bet you 50 bucks that doesn't come up on google" I said. So here's a public apology to Susie and a lesson learned for me.

With a little reflection, I feel like I didn't properly prepare him for the match and how I need to maybe reconsider what role "traps and zaps" play in the world of scholastic chess. I hated seeing the little guy lose a game I feel he should have won. Here is the game, rest assured this is the last time one of my students lose to this.

[Event "?"] [Site "?"] [Date "2014.02.24"] [Round "?"] [White "Kuhn, Jackson"] [Black "Probus, Jaden"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "C44"] [Annotator "Crookston, Stephen"] [PlyCount "22"] [SourceDate "2013.10.03"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 f6 $2 {Aiden Reilly played this move against Hailey once to my dismay. Bad way to handle the Scotch Gambit, black needs his f7 pawn to castle and avoid white's tricks.} 4. dxe5 fxe5 5. Bc4 Nf6 6. Nc3 h6 7. O-O Ng4 $6 8. h3 h5 {Diagram [#] The so-called fishing pole trap, which Jaden asked Jackson if he knew before the match.} 9. hxg4 hxg4 10. Nh2 $4 (10. Ng5 $1 {Stopping the queen from coming to h4 wins it all.}) 10... Qh4 11. f3 g3 0-1