The Scotch Opening - The ultimate guide
The Scotch is a centuries-old 1.e4 opening for White and one of the best alternatives to the Ruy Lopez. It has always been my favourite chess opening since I started chess.
One of its most prominent adopters was GM Garry Kasparov. Other elite players like GMs Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian, and Magnus Carlsen also have the Scotch as part of their arsenal.
In this blog, we will explore all the common ideas and tricks in the Scotch Opening.
- Opening ideas
- Scotch Game
- Scotch Gambit
- Other common variations
Opening Ideas
This is the opening order of the Scotch Opening. White strikes on the center immediately, wanting Black to give up their
central e5-pawn. With this move, White can get a central
space advantage and the position will be very easy to play.
There are very limited ways the opponent can respond to this, avoiding heavy theory to memorise compared to the
Ruy Lopez Opening.
Black's most common response to the Scotch Opening is by capturing the pawn on d4. This was played for 24,784 times in the Database, significantly more popular than the second most popular move 3...d6 which was only played 338 times. These variations are not as popular and are not as important, and they will be covered at the end.
There are 3 possible ways to counter this opening.
-Scotch Game (4. Nxd4)
-Scotch Gambit (4. Bc4)
-Goring Gambit (4. c3)
-Relfsson Gambit (4. Bb5)
Scotch Game
We now cover the most solid response against black in this opening, recapturing and winning back the pawn on d4. There are many ways Black can respond to this to get a central advantage, and I have sorted them by popularity.
4...Nf6 (Schimdt Variation)
4...Bc5 (Classical Variation)
4...Nxd4 (More popular in lower level)
4...Qf6 (More popular in upper level)
4...Bb4+ (Malaniuk Variation, Very unlikely to face)
The Schimdt Variation
This is the most common line faced in the Schimdt Variation.
This is known as the Mieses Variation. Black has ideas such as Ba6 but can be easily refuted with b3 and Bg2 ideas.
Classical Variation
This line covers most of the ideas in this variation.
Nxd4
This is actually not the best move, and many players do this at lower level because they do not understand a lot of theory yet.
The draw trap
Best line (If you want to be solid and precise)
Qf6 is actually very similar to the Classical, so I will not be covering it.
Bb4+ is very tricky and I have a really good trap against it.
Honestly, I think this channel explains better than me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LX5RxdXMjs&list=PL5evpbrV6ZOTxiEW8QVKy-kIK0sBNb39T shoutout to @Somedumbtrucker
Anyways next line...
Scotch Gambit
Tricky stuff.
The Goring Gambit I think this video speaks for itself, made by @SomeDumbTrucker
