The Spicy Scotch Bonnet Gambit
The Scotch (bonnet) Gambit! A fun opening gambit where white willingly gives up a pawn, content with giving up the precious commodity that is his central pawn, for a fast attack on black’s king. White need only follow the classical principles of development (getting all your pieces out towards the centre and castling early) to give him reasonable chances out of the opening. Whilst the Scotch gambit cannot always guarantee a crazy uncompromising position, there are certain variations that can meander into the madness that is the "Max Lange attack!" – An opening variation that that gives the same adrenaline rush as skydiving or doing the skeleton bob.
Just a taster of the madness that is the max lange attack
This blog will not be an opening theory masterclass on the scotch gambit (I will leave that for the experts) but rather a flashing Vegas style advertisement for some of the cracking games you can get from this opening. Like a married couple looking to spice up their life a bit, if you are not satisfied by your Ruy Lopezes (perhaps the plural of Lopez?), Italian games or wish to supercharge your scotch positions, the scotch gambit is a very attractive chess opening that yields some very dynamic and unruly positions.
Howard Staunton pops Popert
Like all 19th century chess players, Howard Staunton sported a beard. Not my favourite type of beard, or hair for that matter, but I digress...
Howard Staunton, an English master from the 19th century, is perhaps most famous for standardising chess sets around the world - Staunton sets anyone?
He also played a decent game of chess too and was probably the best player in the world beating the next best player, frenchman Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant in a match in 1843 (Although Howard lost the longest name competition).
Whilst far from a perfect game here, Staunton does eventually show off some of the general principles of the Scotch Gambit:
- Fast development
- Control of the centre
- Castling the king to bring the rooks into the centre
- Hope to catch the king in the centre
- Looking for tactics constantly!
In all the games I will show you, typically the black king ends up trapped in the centre leading to a fast checkmate
Morphy showing us how it is done!
Morphy did not employ the scotch gambit too much in his playing career, but had an excellent record against it as black scoring an impressive 100%. This game featured in Dr. David Regis' Junior repertoire pdf. I would encourage you to check it out if you would like to learn the scotch in a bit more detail.
This game really emphasises control of the centre. At move 15, white has a truly dominant position. A real treat to the eye
Modern day masterpiece
Li Chao2, not to be confused with Li Chao1, is a strong Chinese Grand-master who is still competing at super GM level. Here he demonstrates why he is so strong by quickly dismantling a 2200 player
My own suspect masterpiece
I thought I would finish this blog with one of my own games I played not too long ago that inspired this blog. Hopefully this will encourage yourselves to try out the scotch gambit!
On move 8 there was an even stronger move I missed which would have netted me a greater advantage!
With these four games I hoped to show you some of the crazy positions you could get in your scotch games. Next time, when you have a choice to play the scotch, make sure you take a minute to consider playing the gambit. Hope you enjoyed the games!
