Learning a chess opening has to include that you know what to do if someone isn’t playing the right moves. Opening traps and miniatures 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 called traps, but a trap is in fact a game that is won as a result of playing a dubieus move. In the following miniatures Black makes a mistake and White knows how to deal with this.
The main game is a game between Magem and Fernandez in the Spain championship, but I have merged three other miniatures with this game..
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Scotch |
Another short game is the game Frazer – Taubenhaus [Paris 1888] 4... Qh4 5.Nc3 Nf6? 6.Nf5 Qh5?? 7.Be2 Qg6 8.Nh4 and Black resigned because there are no safe squares left for the Queen 8... Nxe4 9.Nxg6
And Blumenfeld played in Moscow 1903 4... Nge7?! against an unknown player 5.Nc3 g6? 6.Bg5 Bg7 7.Nd5 Bxd4? 8.Qxd4 Nxd4 resulting in a mate in two: 9.Nf6+ Kf8 10.Bh6#
The game Sakirsjanov – Usmano [Kasan 1983] went 4...Qh4 5.Nb5 Bc5? ?! 6.Qf3 ( 6.Nxc7+ seems to be better at first sight, but continues like 6... Kd8 7.Bg5+ Qxg5 8.Nxa8 which is about equal ) 6… Kd8 7.Bf4 d6 8.Qg3 Qf6 9.N1c3 a6?? 10.Nxc7
6.Nd4 1-0
Five nice miniatures worth replaying.
The next lesson is about getting a draw.
August 23rd, 2007 at 3:13 pm
When I first started playing chess (at the age of 9 or 10) the Scotch Game was one of my favorite openings – not for any practical reason really, but be because of the name ‘Scotch’ – although a native born American I am of mostly Scottish decent. Not necessarily a great reason for picking a favorite opening – but, hey, you have to start somewhere.
It makes me wonder if Edwin ‘dutchdefence’ Meyer, who is Dutch (and BTW has a superb blog at http://dutchdefence.wordpress.com) has picked the Dutch Defence as his favorite opening?
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August 28th, 2007 at 11:26 am
Aren’t there some traps for white to fall into?!
Having to face the Scotch was one of the reasons I gave up 1…e5.
August 28th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Of course there are traps for white to fall into.
Take for example the game between Vasily Panasenko and Dmitry Shulzhenko (Kiev, 2005):
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.b3 Qf6 7.c3 Qxf2# 0-1
OK, it is a kind of blunder, but the mate shows one of the possibilities for Black.
Black can even better immediately play 5…Qf6 and if White defends by 6.Qd2 Black’s best move is 6…dxc6
This is a position in which most threaths are targeted at the White side.
September 22nd, 2007 at 6:22 am
Very interesting article on the Scotch. Thank you.
September 22nd, 2007 at 8:50 pm
I do not see why 6.Nd4 is 1-0 !?
Please explain this-thanks
September 23rd, 2007 at 2:57 pm
@ Scotch enprise
After 5.Nxc6 Black plays the move 5…Qh4, probably because of 6…Qxf2#.
But White’s response to this move is 6.Nd4 which deals with this mate threath and brings the Knight to a safe place. Now White is a piece ahead and Black has no compensation whatsoever. Depending on White’s playing strength this should be enough for White to win the game.