The Scotch game
The Scotch opening is a chess opening that fits in very well with the Rules for the opening from the previous series of chess lessons.
In short:
- Get a pawn in the centre
- Develop your minor pieces
- Move your King to safety
In the Scotch game it is not only White’s intention to accomplish these goals, but also to prevent Black doing the same. The purpose of the game is to reach an advantageous imbalance.
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Scotch |
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 The Scotch game. With the move d4 White imediately attacks Black’s pawn in the centre. Black’s normal continuation will be 3... exd4 The pawn has to be captured, because the alternatives are not very promising for Black:
3… Bd6 blocks Black’s own pieces
4. Nxd4 and now the only pawn in the centre is White’s. Black has to do something about this and will try to increase his influence on the centre. I mention three alternatives, of which I consider 4...Bc5 as the main variation, targeted at an attack of White’s pieces in the centre.
A less frequently played, but interesting alternative 4... Bb4+ but after 5.c3 Bc5 6.Be3 Bb6 7.Bc4 Nge7 8.O-O O-O I prefer to play with the White pieces.
Hello CT,
First, I want to thank you for visiting my blog and leaving a comment.
Secondly, I want to say I have enjoyed my visit to your blog, well done my friend.
The plugins you are using are really nice. One of these days, once I have my own domain name, I plan to switch over to Wordpress too.
Btw, I have added a link to your blog at my site under Chess Blogs in our right hand column.
Take care my friend, and in the immortal words of Arnold, “I’ll be back!”
Ray
[...] are very illustrative and help us to increase our knowledge about an opening. As a follow-up on the lesson about the Scotch game this post will show a combination of some miniatures of this Scotch game. These games are often [...]