Open game: early tactics on e5 — Chess Library

Open e4-e5 positions are full of early tactical motifs — pins, forks, and the traps that punish careless development. Here the tension is already on the board at move three.

Lesson

White to move. Main line: 1. Nxe5 Qe7 2. Nf3 Qxe4+ 3. Be2

Can White simply take on e5? Yes — but only because after ...Qe7 the knight retreats and the recapture on e4 walks into a development race that favors White: the queen will be kicked with gain of time by Nc3 and d3.

The instructive point is the difference between winning a pawn and keeping it. Black regains the pawn but concedes the initiative; strong players often decline such pawn grabs precisely because of the tempo count.

Try stepping through the replay and counting developed pieces after move five — the material is equal, the position is not.