The Légall Trap or Blackburne Trap (also known as Légall Pseudo-Sacrifice and Légall Mate) is a chess opening , characterized by a queen sacrifice followed by checkmate with minor pieces if Black accepts the sacrifice. The trap is named after the French player Sire de Légall. Joseph Henry Blackburne, a British master and one of the world's top five players in the latter part of the 19th century, set the trap on many occasions. Natural move sequence There is a number of ways the trap can arise; the one below shows a natural move sequence from a simultaneous exhibition in Paris. André Cheron, one of France's leading players, won with the trap as White against Jeanlose: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 d6 The Semi-Italian Opening. 4. Nc3 Bg4 Black pins the knight in the fight over the center. Strategically this is a sound idea, but there is a tactical flaw with the move. 5. h3 In this position 5.Nxe5 would be . While the white queen still cannot be taken (5...Bxd1) without succumbing to a checkmate in two moves, 5...Nxe5 would win the white knight (for the pawn) and protect the bishop on g4. Instead, with 5.h3, White "puts the question" to the bishop which must either retreat on the c8–h3 diagonal, capture the knight, be captured, or as in this game, move to an insecure square. 5... Bh5 (diagram) Black apparently maintains the pin, but this is a tactical blunder which loses at least a pawn (see below). Relatively best is 5...Bxf3 (or 5...Bd7), surrendering the and giving White a comfortable lead in , but maintaining equality. 5...Be6 is also possible. 6. Nxe5 The tactical refutation. White seemingly ignores the pin and surrenders the queen. Black's best course now is to play 6...Nxe5, where with 7.Qxh5 Nxc4 8.Qb5+ followed by 9.Qxc4, White remains a pawn ahead, but Black can at least play on. Instead, if Black takes the queen, White has checkmate in two moves: 6... Bxd1 Winning the queen but losing the game. Black should have played 6...Nxe5 or 6...dxe5 as mentioned in the previous note. 7. Bxf7+ Ke7 8. Nd5 The final position is a pure mate, meaning that for each of the eight squares around the black king, there is exactly one reason the king cannot move there, and exactly one reason why the king cannot remain on its current square. Légal versus