Killer Steinitz Variation in the Scotch (and how to defend against it)

#ScotchGame #SteinitzVariation 

Earlier in the month, I had a video and article on the Steinitz Variation as a response by Black against the Scotch Game. One of the interesting things about the Steinitz Variation is that although it is objectively bad according to Stockfish and master level play, it is statistically the response to the Scotch Game after: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4, that Black is most likely to win in lower-rated community games of blitz and rapid in the massive Lichess database.

Today, I played a game as Black where my higher rated opponent opened with the Scotch. After the typical opening, I responded with the Steinitz Variation, 4… Qh4! In the analysis afterwards, I had a look at my opponent’s games, and they have been recently playing, and winning, with the Scotch. However, as the Steinitz Variation is a very uncommon response, it is not unusual for the Scotch player at the beginner-intermediate level to not be very familiar with it.

My opponent quickly responded with the obvious and best move, Nc3, which I then immediately pinned to their king with Bb4. They then spent over three minutes making a decision on their sixth move. Simply, it can be tricky for the unprepared Scotch player, and errors resulted soon in a completely winning position for me.

So, what is the best response on move 6 for White? It is Be2. This prevents a check if the black queen captures the pawn on e3, develops a piece, and chases the queen away with tempo should Black get greedy and captures the pawn on g2.

Game on chess.com: https://www.chess.com/game/live/49703939339