My Gambit : A Totally Biased Blog About The Scotch Gambit

Welcome to the 6th installment of my chess blogging series the “Complete beginner guide”, in today’s blog we shall not do the same as usual in this series by going over common popular openings, instead this blog will be a deep dive into my personal favorite opening, the Scotch gambit.

This blog will mainly cover key lines for white, good traps that black can fall into, key opening themes and attacking plans, and why the Scotch gambit is my favorite opening.

What is the Scotch gambit?

The Scotch gambit is a sideline of the more popular Scotch game, which starts with white playing 1.e4, black following up with 1...e5, 2.Nf3 Nc6, here the most popular move for white is 3.Bc4, then its 3.Bb5 in second, and in third it is 3.d4, the Scotch game.

After 3.d4 black will exchange with exd4, some players may play d6, however it is a lot less popular variation. After exd4 white typically plays 4.Nxd4, which is the main line, however here instead we opt for 4.Bc4, which is the Scotch gambit, my opening.

Haxo gambit

One of the most common responses to 4.Bc4 is the move Bc5, the Haxo gambit. Here white should play 5.c3, setting up a trap, and here 69% (ha ha funny number) of the time black will respond with dxc3, a blunder because it allows you to play 6.Bxf7!! a brilliant move!

The reason why this is a brilliant is because after Kxf7 then you can play 7.Qd5+ and fork the king and bishop, Ke8 and here you play a Zwischenzug, in between move, by instead of playing 8.Qxc5 actually play 8.Qh5+, which is good because after black blocks with g6 now you capture with 9.Qxh5, typically black plays d6 10.Qxc3 and now notice now that you are attacking the rook, which you wouldn’t have done if you didn’t play Qh5+, black blocks with Nf6, you pin the knight with 11.Bg4 Rf8, you protect your king with 12.O-O Bg5 13.Nbd2 and overall your position is very good, the evaluation bar is at +4.0, and white has a 75% win rate, this is thanks to the 6.Bxf7 sacrifice, which forces the king to move, leaving it in the center and very open to attacks.

After 10.Qxf3 however, black also often plays Qf6, wanting to trade, now by all means don’t trade the queens, you want your queen orchestrate the attack against blacks centralized king, a trade here only benefits black. Here the best move for white is 11.Qb3, black develops with Nge7, you play 12.O-O, here your position is extremely good, the evaluation bar is at +2.4, and a 72% win rate, which is yet again thanks to black vulnerable king.

Instead of falling for the trap black can of course play other moves, such as 5...Nf6, here instead of playing the main move 6.cxd4, which takes you straight into the Italian game, you should actually play 6.e5, kicking your opponents knight, and here there are several moves that black can play, most of them not being very good by the way.

First of all there is the move Ng4 which is a rather popular move for black...even tho it is a blunder as you can play 7.Bxf7+!! which is another brilliant move! Kxf7 and we play 8.Ng5+ and on the next move you will capture there knight, unless they play the most popular move Kg8 which blunders checkmate with 9.Qb3+ d5 10.exd6+ (remember en passant kids!) Be6 11.Qxe6 Kf8 12.Qf7#.

So Ng4 is bad, but what about Ne4? Well then you go 7.O-O and here most players play dxc3, which blunders to 8.Qd5 which forks thew bishop and knight as well as threatening checkmate on f7! Black has to take there king to safety with O-O, 9.Qxe4 cxb2 10.Bxb2 and white is way ahead, +4.2 on the evaluation and a 76% win rate!

So what should black play? They should play d5 striking back at the white bishop, you play 7.Bb5 Ne4 8.cxd4 Bb4+, you block with 9.Bd2, and here black will capture our bishop with ether there bishop or there knight, in the end our position is generally better, but it could still swing ether way.

Dubois Reti Defense

The there is 4...Nf6, here I recommend you to play 5.O-O, and this leads you to two lines, 5...Bc5 or Nxe4, lets go over Nxe4 first. After Nxe4 white should continue with 6.Re1 pinning the knight, d5 and here you sacrifice with 7.Bxd5! This is because after Qxd5 8.Nc3 both the d pawn and knight are pinned and black cant take your knight. Black may go Qa5 and you recapture with 9.Nxe4, and if black isn’t careful they couldn’t checkmate with a double check, so they should block, usually with Be6 , then white should play 10.Bd2 Qd5 11.Bg5 trying to prevent black from castling, black goes h6, which allows you to sacrifice the bishop with 12.Bf6, if gxf6 then Nf6+ forking the king and queen, so black will instead play Qf5, 13.Nxd4 Nxd4 14.Qxd4, black will play gxf6 15.Nxf6+ Ke7, white continues with 16.Nd5+ Ke8 17.Nxc7 forking the king and rook and at the same time attacking the rook on h8 with our queen, and overall white should win, +7.9 and a 88% win rate because of the material advantage and blacks exposed king.

If instead of 10...Qd5 black can also go Qf5, then white should still play 11.Bg5, and like last time black will typically respond with h6, white should move there bishop away with 12.Bh4 g5, and here white should play 13.Nxd4 Nxd4 14.Qxd4 gxh4 15.Nf6+ Ke7 16.Nd5+ Ke8 and finally we have 17.Nxc7+ and yet again we fork the king and rook and attack the h8 rook yet again, and thanks to blacks weak king white should win this game.

Instead of 11...h6 in the previous line, some black players also play the move Bc5, which is a blunder as white can play 12.Nh4 attacking the queen, Qd5 and white will play 13.c4 attacking the queen yet again, which puts black in a dilemma as there bishop on c5 is under attack, they have to defend the bishop, but the only 2 places left are Qxc4, which loses to 14.Rc1, or Qe5 which loses to 14.f4 d3+ 15.Kh1 Qd4 16.Nf3 Qxc4 17.Rc1, this game is pretty much over for white here, after 13...Qxc4 white is at +4.2, and after 13...Qe5 line white has a +6.2 advantage according to the analysis bar. This is thanks to blacks incredibly weak king.

And now for the biggest shock of all, GM Wesley Sol, who at the time was the 5th best player in the world, once played black in the 13..Qe5 line against GM Gawain Jones! After 19.Rc1 (19. because instead of playing 14.f4 Jones played 14.Nf3 Qf5 15.Nh4 Qe5 and then f4 on move 16) because at the match continued with 19..d2 20.Rxc4 dxe1=Q+ 21.Qxe1 Bxc4 22.Nxc5+ and here Wesley So resigned! So you see, even a super grandmaster can get blown away by this gambit!

And finally after 8.Nc3 black can also play 8...Qh5, white continues as always with 9.Nxe4 Be6 and white will still play 10.Bg5 Bd6 11.c4 O-O, white continues with 12.c5 attacking the bishop, Be7 13.Bxe7 Nxe7 white takes the hanging d pawn with 14.Nxd4, and black usually trades off the queens with Qxd1 15.Raxd1 and overall whites position is better, as white has a 63% win rate from here.

Max Lange Attack

Instead of going 5...Nxe4, a lot of black players also will play 5...Bc5, the Max Lange Attack, white should attack blacks knight with 6.e5, which leaves black with several options, first there is Ng8, which is just bad, it undevelops the knight and allows you to continue with 7.c3, and yet again black falls for the trap with dxc3 allowing us to play 8.Bxf7+ yet again with the exact same idea as the Haxo gambit line.

Then there is 6...Ne4, white should follow up with 7.Re1, and black try’s to protect there knight with d5, but they forget about en passant! 8.exd6 Bf5 9.dxc7 Qxc7, and now white should play 10.Ng5 attacking the pinned knight, blacks most common move is O-O, which allows white to capture the hanging knight with 11.Nxe4 Bxe4 12.Rxe4 and white ahead with a bishop is comfortably winning.

Blacks most popular move however is 6...Ng4, here white should play a move that should be ingrained into your mind for this gambit, say it with me, 7.Bxf7+, Kxf7 and then 8.Ng5+ forking the king and knight, Kg8 9.Qxg4 Nxe5 which attacks whites queen so white moves it away with 10.Qe4 counter attacking blacks knight, d6 11.Qd5+ Kf8, and here white removes the defender of f7 (the knight) with 12.f4 , black most often attacks the queen with c6, which blunders to 13.fxe5+ discovered check, Qf6 14.Rxf6+ gxf6 and white checkmates black with 15.Qf7#!

The only move for black that is actually decent is 6...d5, counter attacking our bishop, white should trade off with 7.exf6 dxc4, instead of playing 8.fxg7 white should play 8.Re1+, here black will block with Be6, and white should now play 9.Ng5 attacking the bishop, Qxf6 and black try’s to defend but we trade with 10.Nxe6 fxe6 and we fork black with 11.Qh5+ g6 12.Qxc5 and white is pretty much winning with a +4.5 on the evaluation bar and a 80% win rate.

h6, d6 and Be7

Now for 4...h6, d6 and Be7, the lesser known sidelines that aren’t played that often.

If black plays play 4...h6 then you will recapture your gambited pawn with 5.Nxd4, and here black will most often trade off the knights with Nxd4 6.Qxd4 d6, overall you have a better position, because your development will be quicker then whites you have the advantage and will go on the attack before black has all of there pieces developed.

Meanwhile the 4…d6 line is pretty much the same as the 4...h3 line, the only difference is that this time instead of having there pawn on h6 for no reason by move 6 they would be able to develop there knight with 6.Nf6 for example, overall making it a better position for black then the 4...h6 line.

And finally 4...Be7, it goes pretty much the same as the two previous lines at first, 5.Nxd4 Nxd4 6.Qxd4 Nf6, however the only difference is that there is no pawn on d6, which allows you to push with 7.e5 kicking the black knight, which gives you an extra tempo against black. Of all the 3 lines this is the best for white.

London defense, blacks best response

And now you may be asking “What is blacks best response to this gambit?”, well it is the move 4...Bb4+, the London Defense, which funnily enough isn’t played that much, its only the 6th most popular move, even that terrible move Be7 is played more!

To this white should respond with 5.c3 blocking the check, black will trade with dxc3 and instead of capturing with the knight we recapture with 6.bxc3, attacking the bishop gaining another tempo. The next move is now the most pivotal move for this variation. For example here many players play Be7, which yet again is an error as we can play 7.Qd5 threatening checkmate, there only defense is Nh6, we will take the knight with 8.Bxh6 and here the only move to prevent checkmate for black is O-O, and because of this we are up a knight and should win the game.

Then there is 6...Bc5, which yet again allows us to play 7.Bxf7+ Kxf7 8.Qd5+ Ke8 9.Qh5 g6 10.Qxc5, here black usually responds with d6 attacking our queen, 11.Qe3 and yet again whites position is way better then blacks, +1.8 and with a 63% win rate, thanks again to the vulnerability of blacks centralized king.

Finally we have the best move for black, 6...Ba5, here instead of O-O white should play 7.Qb3, and opt for a similar plan that white has in the Evans gambit. Black defends f7 with Qe7, we play 8.O-O and here black will usually play Nf6, which allows us to play 9.e5, black will move there knight away with Ng4, white follows up with 10.Bg5 and here black blocks with f6, 11.exf6 gxf6 12.Re1 Nge5, overall whites position is better, 59% win rate, however is still a bit of a dicey position and can swing ether way.

Crazy horse gambit

It would be a crime to make a blog about the Scotch gambit without at the very least mentioning the Crazy horse, or Trojan horse, gambit. And since I don’t want to go to jail I will now go over it even tho technically it is not part of the Scotch gambit.

This gambit starts with white instead of playing 4.Bc4, plays 4.Ng5, which theoretically means it is not part of the Scotch gambit, but from what I see most people consider it as a sub line to it since this gambit also doesn’t recapture the d pawn. To continue this gambit black has to play h6, which is the most popular move, even if white doesn’t play h6, and instead plays something like 4...Nf6, you can play 5.Bc4 and try to go for some weird fried liver. Or if they play 4...Be7 you can still continue like you normally do for this gambit. Anyway black mostly plays h6, which allows you to play 4.Nxf7!

Why Nxf7? Doesn’t it give up the knight? Well yes, it does, however it opens up the black king allowing white to go on a king manhunt, notice that white wins 72% of the games, after black takes the knight white has to play 6.Bc4+, and now what black plays will decide the outcome of the game, if black plays the most played and most natural move, Ke8, it is checkmate in 6 moves with 7.Qh5+ (If g6 then 8.Qxg6 and it continues the same) Ke7 8.Qf7+ Kd6 9.Bf4 (if Ne5 then still 10.Qd5) Kc5 10.Qd5 and the next move is checkmate with Qb5#.

Now black can also play 6...Ke8 or d5 and they evade checkmate, even tho black is up a knight the position is still rather hard for black to defend, there king is still all out in the open and weak witch white could capitalize, overall it still quite a tricky position for black to defend.

Of course I don’t recommend you to play this opening, as it is still technically hope chess, however if you do want to play risky you can still go for it since it still has a 74% win rate after 6.Bc4+, an incredibly high win rate after only 6 moves. Generally I would recommend if you where to play this to only play this against players under 1200, as usually they wont know how to deal with this and at that rating range white now has a 80% win rate. Which is just a insane win rate to have after 6 moves.

I hope you enjoyed this blog, and agree that this is a great opening. Special shout out to @Cassian_Cashout for creating the thumbnail of this blog, he also makes really good blogs as well, so be sure to check out his blogs. If you want to see more of my blogs make sure to follow me @NoahdeAlwis