Let's play the Scotch Gambit!
Let's learn the Scotch Gambit!
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.
Black took our pawn - but what makes this Scotch Game a Scotch GAMBIT? We don't take back! And we instead play bishop to c4. We're going for rapid development, not that measly pawn.
Black is saying "hey I took the d4 pawn, and now I want that e4 pawn too". We're saying "absolutely not". Pawn to e5.
Now, I'm going to recommend a move that the computer hates—but before you email me with, "Blah blah blah, I want to play theoretically perfectly," trust me: this move will win you the game. The line I’ve picked has—no joke—a 99% win rate. Only one guy ever managed to hold an advantage as Black, and he was rated 2200. He still lost. The move? Bishop sacrifice on f7.
Now for phase two of our trap: knight check on g5.
The king has crawled into his hole. The obvious move is queen takes knight on g4 But the BEST move is much sneakier: queen to f3 threatening checkmate on f7. THIS is the part that will trip up 99% of your opponents.
YUP! Told you!!! Black missed that our queen has more than just checkmate on f7... WE HAVE CHECKMATE WITH QUEEN TO D5. Noooooobody spots this.
That was black's only move. Now we finish with queen takes knight on f7.
THAT'S how it's done.
YUP! Told you!!! Black missed that our queen has more than just checkmate on f7... WE HAVE CHECKMATE WITH QUEEN TO D5. Noooooobody spots this.
Now queen to f7....
....aaaaaaand CHECKMATE
OK black stopped checkmate on both f7 and d5, but queen to d5 is still CRUSHING
Black literally has to give away their queen to not lose the game. This is just sad. Knight takes queen on e6.
OK i actually feel bad for black. They didn't deserve this.
Black is putting all their hopes and dreams on that strong d4 pawn. Instead of trying to fight back for the square, we can lure the pawn AWAY from d4 by playing pawn to c3. Black will likely take and their pawn won't be on d4 anymore.
Black took the bait! Now we're going to get 3 things: rapid development, a strong center, and the win (hopefully :P). Bishop SACRIFICE on f7.
OK we lost a bishop. It's only right that we win one back. Queen to d5 forking the king and the bishop.
WAIT WAIT WAIT. Before you capture the c5 Bishop, we can play an in-between move to make black's position even worse. Queen to h5 checking the king. Either the king moves or the pawns move, either way it hurts black's position and we can always take the bishop right after.
Aaaaaaand NOW we take the bishop. Queen to c5.
Black is just ASKING us to take that c3 pawn. Queen to c3. We win a pawn AND we threaten rook on h8.
Awful move from black. Now the knight is pinned against the rook! Adding pressure to the knight is good, but the best move here is to just castle kingside and let Black continue digging their own grave.
It's a tale of two cities. White has done very well, and black is crumbling. +2 point advantage for us.
A queen trade just hurts us. Let's slide our queen over to b3 to stop white from ever developing their light-squared bishop (because then we'd win the pawn).
Nice nice. We evened up our material, and once we castle we'll be sitting pretty with a +1 point computer advantage (and a 75% winrate!)