Trapping
Trapping is a tactic where a player makes opponent’s piece vulnerable to attack by restricting its space. This can occur when a piece is surrounded by other pieces and has no legal moves, or when it is threatened by multiple pieces and is unable to move without being captured. Let us dive into some examples.
In the following example, the black horse is in a poor position as it only has two safe spots (F6 and F8). Red can first move its C5 elephant to E7 to restrict the movement of the horse.
Trapping example 1.1
After the move, the black horse is now trapped as it failed to find any safe escape routes. Red can now perform an attack by moving the H8 chariot to D8 and capture the black horse easily.
Trapping example 1.2
Let’s look at another example here. We can see the black chariot is currently attacking the red horse. However, the chariot does not have a lot of places to go. Red can trap the chariot by moving the C3 horse to B5.
Trapping example 2.1
This move not only protects the C7 horse, but also allows the B5 horse to be the mount for the B3 cannon to attack the chariot. The black chariot fails to find any escape routes.
Trapping example 2.2
Trapping is an useful strategy when you observe your some of your opponent’s pieces are in bad positions. By restricting their movement, we can then capture them with ease and establish a solid advantage for ourselves. Below is a puzzle about trappign, click on the button and check your knowledge level on this topic!
Practice makes perfect!