Let's play the scotch game.
Let's learn the scotch game! This opening literally just feels like a cheat code - it's so easy to get a winning position in just a few moves, and ALL of black's most common responses, especially at <2000 ELO, will make them lose on the spot. We begin with pawn to e4.
Let's continue with the scotch game
Let's develop our knight to f3. I'm sure you've played this a million times before.
Now in other openings you might develop your other knight or your bishop, but in the scotch game, we force the issue NOW. Pawn to d4. Black must decide if they will take our pawn or defend their own.
Let's recapture our pawn: knight to d4. We are baiting black to take our knight next.
Now we're entering the scotch game mainline. First move is pretty simple: Black added an attacker on our knight, we'll add a defender. Bishop to e3.
GAME OVER. Black fell right into a trap. Things may look normal right now, but we simply play knight takes knight on c6. Now the queen is under attack, and the c5 bishop is hanging. Black can't save both.
Beautiful, now we get a free bishop. Bishop takes bishop on c5.
Smoked.
This is the most common move from black, and its also the WORST move for black. They've just let us bring our queen out to the middle of the board. Bringing our queen out this early is usally bad, but in this case Black doesn't have the b8 knight to attack her. Queen captures knight on d4.
Another awful move from black. We really can't go wrong here - any queen move works. I recommend keep the queen active by sliding her to e3.
A HUGE point of the scotch is the fact that our e-pawn can march forward and hit the knight when the knight develops to f6. Well, the knight developed to f6, so lets hit it with pawn to e5.
Well done! We have transposed into another line we've already learned :)
Black took their queen out to attack our knight, but now we turn the tables. Knight to b5 and all of a sudden, we are threatening a fork on the now unguarded c7 square. We win 60% of the time JUST from making this move.
Black is threatening checkmate on f2, so we should probably deal with that. Simply queen to e2.
Black thinks they've stabilized, but we have a nasty threat coming. Knight from b1 to c3 and we're threatening knight to d5 forking the queen, the bishop, and the c7 pawn. If we can get our knight to d5 successfully, it's all over.
Beautiful, black let us do it. Now knight to d5 and we fork the bishop, queen, and c7 pawn.
Knight takes bishop on b6, removing a key defender...
And now you see the master plan: knight to d6 CHECK.
Finally, develop our bishop to f4.
Wow. The material is equal but we will win from here 100% of the time. Our knight is just too good. We'll castle now, develop our last pieces, and then launch a huge attack on black's weak position.
This is the third most common move for black. From here, we just play pawn takes pawn on e5.
Now we develop our bishop to c4
Blunder! Black thinks they're doing some smart attack on our f2 pawn, but we simply have queen to d5, forking checkmate on f7 and the knight on e4
This delays the inevitable. King slides over to f1.
Black castled to handle the checkmate threat, but now we get our free knight! Queen takes knight on e4.
Nice! We have an extra knight.
Black is playing too defensively here - they've given us the whole center. Pawn to d5 forces the knight back.
I have no idea why this is black's second most common move... It simply loses a central pawn. Knight takes knight on d4.
Now we get our free pawn! Queen takes pawn on d4.
That was easy....