Rules / Traps
Trap chess: rules and how to hide and avoid traps
Before a game of Traps begins, both players hide traps on their own half of the board. Any piece that lands on a trap is removed, including your own. It's chess with mines, and most of the skill is working out which squares can't be mined.
The rules
- Before the game, each player places traps on their nearest four ranks. White uses ranks 1 to 4 and Black uses ranks 5 to 8. Three traps each is the default.
- You can put a trap under one of your own starting pieces, and you can stack several on one square. Starting pieces aren't affected by being on a trap.
- A piece that lands on a trap is removed from the board, whichever player owns it. Your own traps hit your own pieces too.
- Passing over a square does nothing. Only the final square of a move counts.
- A trap is used up when it fires. A stack of two fires twice.
- The King survives the first trap it lands on and stays on that square. A second trap loses the game.
- When castling, both the King's and the Rook's landing squares can trigger traps.
Which squares are safe
You know more than it seems. Three facts narrow the search quickly:
- Your half is safe from enemy traps. Until you cross into the far half, the only traps you can hit are your own, and you placed them.
- A square that has been landed on is clear. Traps are only placed before the game, so once a piece has landed on a square and nothing happened, that square holds nothing for the rest of the game. A square where a trap fired may still hold more, since traps can be stacked.
- The density is low. With three traps spread across 32 squares, a single first visit to the enemy half has about a 1 in 11 chance of hitting one, if you assume they were spread evenly. Real players don't spread them evenly, so the squares people like are worse than that.
Sending a cheap piece first is the natural plan. A pawn that lands on an unknown square and survives clears the way for the pieces behind it. Losing a pawn to a trap also costs your opponent one of their traps.
Where to place your traps
Under a piece that looks like a target
A trap under your f7 pawn does nothing when the game starts, but a bishop that captures on f7 lands on the square and is removed. A quick attack on f7 or f2 runs straight into it. The same idea works under any piece you expect to be captured.
On central squares your opponent wants
For Black, e5 and d5 are obvious choices. White's pieces like to land there. The drawback is that your own pieces want those squares too, so you have to remember and avoid them.
Not where you need to move
Traps hit their owner. A trap on a square your own knight needs in the opening will cost you a move or a piece. Before you confirm, think through your first few moves. Your castling squares deserve a look too, since the King and the Rook both land.
Keep count of the King's hit
The King can step on one trap and live, so late in the game it can sometimes test a square that a more valuable piece shouldn't. But it's a one-time allowance, and it counts both players' traps together. After one hit, your King can't risk any unknown square, and an opponent who noticed can play for that.
Reading the screen
You see your traps only while placing them. Once the game starts, every trap is hidden, including your own, so you have to remember where you put yours. The replay shows them all.
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