Opinions on the scotch opening?

I tried it for the first time here and it was revoked immediately, I feel like everyone knows the lines to everything even at low blitz of 1,000 elo.

I think the Scotch Game can be a little confusing for White because there are a lot of unexpected ways to unintentionally give Black the advantage almost immediately.

Like any opening that isn't considered "unsound," it does its job if you know what you're doing. However, it has a much higher chance of blowing up in your face if you have no clue.

On a semi-related note: the "trap" you've probably seen in dozens of videos where White doesn't recapture the pawn and instead sacrifices their knight to initiate a "king hunt" that leads to an unstoppable checkmate is refuted. If Black plays correctly, there will be no "king hunt" and White will simply be down a knight for nothing.

What is your favorite white opening?

I like the Spanish with white & the French with black. Happy chess, 🙂♟️

The Scotch game is a good opening in so far as it gives white plenty of options as well as a number of successful gambit lines. If one is going to play the Scotch then one needs to have a response to the Petrov should it occur. Black is going to respond to 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 with either 2...Nf6 or Nc6; Nf6 is the Petrov's Defense. If white chooses not to play a gambit, then typical play has the center almost totally empty ( 1 pawn on the small center squares), with white having the better pawns and slightly more space and a great deal of tactical opportunities for both sides. The Scotch Game/Opening has two respected gambits, the Scotch and Goring Gambits, which are close cousins of the Danish Gambit. The Scotch Game/Opening is perfect for newer players because it's a game where tactics and initiative count far more than pawn play or positional chess it forces players to defer to chess principles. For example wasting a few moves in the opening can easily result in the offending side being overrun before move 20.

The reason most 1000s know how to play against the Scotch is because it very popular. As a 1000 myself, (at least at the time of posting this,) I see about equal thirds of Italian/Ruy Lopez/Scotch, so you either have to learn it or avoid it entirely. Additionally, there are a ton of YouTube channels that have done videos on defending against the Scotch, so if you want to play the Scotch, you might want to scour the Internet for every variation your opponents might play. However, I rarely see the Goring gambit, so you could easily get away with using it.

One can succeed with the Goring because it is sound, white trades his queen side pawns for a fast attack. Players make the fundamental error of looking for an opening in which black can't equalize, such an opening doesn't exist; equalization doesn't mean refutation. The Scotch can be slippery with the move orders and can alter move orders to initiate favorable transpositions into the Scotch and Goring gambits. The Scotch, for the reasons listed above, (and more) is an grade-A opening on the A to F scale.

The Scotch became very fashionable for a while a few years ago because it hadn't been played much for a bit, because it had been rejected as "tame". So yes, it's tame but when an opening's been rejected for 20 to 30 years, that's the time to bring it back for a while.

The Cambridge Springs Defence had been rejected for years because it's too slow for black but I started playing it and won quite a few games with it. The Cambridge Springs was revived by others about a year later and that was the time for me to stop playing it on the local circuits here, where everyone is fairly up to speed with what's fashionable.