Ever since my childhood I have loved playing chess but could not devote much time learning it. Few years back when I started learning chess seriously, I came across few books which suggest going for traps. Against an amateur player it is always fun planning traps like 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5?! but if your opponent knows how to play against it, you might end up having equal or even worse position. So I never learnt traps.
However in my opinion, one should atleast know how to play against traps and for that one should learn traps at first place. For example in Italian game 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 most popular response by Black is 4...d5. But if Black goes for 4...Bc5 White should not take f7 pawn with knight because otherwise after 5... Bxf2+ 6.Kxf2 (trapped, play 6.Kf1 instead) Nxe4+ 7.Ke3 Qh5 Black has brought his Queen out of fork and is on attack. So White must choose line 5. Bxf7+.
