How to Use the Scholar's Mate in Chess

Chess is a very long and complicated game. But not if you play it right and your opponent isn't very good! Many players are familiar with the Fool's Mate, which is a checkmate in three moves. A slightly more complicated variation on this opening is the Scholar's Mate, which is a checkmate in four moves. The Scholar's Mate relies on an opponent who mirrors your first two moves, and then makes one fatal mistake.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Chess set
• Unwary opponent

1. Move your king's pawn forward two spaces. You hope that black responds by moving his king's pawn forward two spaces, which is a very common response.

2. Move your king's bishop to c4. You hope that black responds by moving his king's bishop to c5, which again, is a very common response since it creates a symmetry.

3. Move your queen to h5. This appears to be an attack on black's unprotected pawn, so he may try to protect it with his queen's knight. Conversely, if black has already moved his queen's knight instead of his bishop on the previous move, he may now attack your queen with his king's knight.

4. Scan the board to make sure black's most recent move does not defend f7 or block your bishop or queen from reaching f7. If f7 has been defended or blocked, you will be unable to complete the Scholar's Mate, and will have to play the rest of the game. If no block or extra defense has occurred, proceed to Step 5.

5. Complete the Scholar's mate by taking the f7 pawn with your queen. This is a checkmate, because the king cannot run away, and cannot take your queen because it is defended by the bishop.

Tips & Warnings

• Try not to draw attention to your plan.
• Don't expect the Scholar's Mate to work against anyone good at chess.

[jonk99]

on 10/29/2009 Good article. And you're right, that it is a bad idea to play this against an experienced player. I wrote about the defense to this in my article.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5586986_defend-against-four-move-checkmate.html?shared=true