10 Openings Every Chess Player Must Memorise

This aggressive opening gives white the ability to checkmate an unsuspecting player in four moves. It is only possible during an Open Game, categorised by the opening moves of pawn to E4 by white and pawn to E5 by black. Scholar’s Mate is a good way to exploit black players, by goading them with easy bait to distract them from the checkmate at hand.

After the initial moves of E4 and E5, whites’ next move is to play king’s side bishop to C4, targeting the pawn on F7. Blacks strongest move in this situation is to move the king’s side knight to F6, threatening the pawn on E4; this is called the Berlin Defence. However in the moment, moving the queen’s side knight to C6, threatening an attack on the bishop by following up with A5, may seem like the opportune move for black. This is what white desires them to play.

After C6, white can continue on by playing queen to H5, a double attack on black’s F7 pawn. Black can still defend in this position, if they move the G7 pawn to G6. Yet again, there is another move which might seem appealing to black. They could move the king’s side knight to F6, threatening to take whites queen on the following turn. But with the F7 pawn still undefended, if white takes with the queen on F7, the bishop on C4 prevents the black king from taking the queen, and the queen stops the king from being able to escape.