It centralizes White's queen without a good way to drive it off. You can't safely use your c-pawn to do that (...c5) since that messes up your pawn structure. I've seen a lot of games lost on this site from players who made that mistake, which occurs in other openings, and with either player, as well.
4...Nf6, 4...Bc5 and 4...Bb4+ are all better moves to play. Or even 4...Qf6, which frequently transposes to Bc5 lines.
There is also 4...Qh4, which wins a pawn, but at a high cost- probably too high.
4...Qh4 seems very interesting. I think I'm gonna try it in blitz, it's probably unexpected.
I guess the drawback is a knight jumping on b5 and c7 becomes a problem, right?
4...Qh4 seems very interesting. I think I'm gonna try it in blitz, it's probably unexpected.
I guess the drawback is a knight jumping on b5 and c7 becomes a problem, right?
Lev Gutman has written a whole book on it. That was almost 25 years ago, so the material is outdated- and the book was extremely hard to read due to its chaotic layout.
If you feel like playing this as Black, then... go on. You are a brave man!
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/game-analysis/scotch-game-why-is-taking-the-knight-a-bad-idea
Meant to post that here.