Three traps in the Scotch: the bait and the punishment
An opening trap works because the bad move looks good: a free pawn, a free piece, a pin that seems to hold. Here are three classic traps of the Scotch Game, each with its bait, the move that punishes it and how not to fall for it.
Where the traps of the Scotch come from
The Scotch opens the centre on move three, so the lines open while both kings are still on their starting squares. Before castling, f7 and f2 are defended only by the king, the e-file leads straight to it, and a piece left without a defender can fall to a check that also attacks it. The traps of this opening feed on those weaknesses. In the three below, the bait comes before move nine, while the black king is still on e8.
Each trap below follows the pattern of our course: the bait, the move that refutes it, why it works and how not to fall for it. They are three of the ten traps of The Scotch Game in Twelve Lessons, the three that are also free in our Lichess study, where you can play through them move by move.
1. Légal’s mate, in the Göring Gambit
After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.c3 dxc3 5.Nxc3 d6 6.Bc4 Bg4 7.O-O, Black plays 7…Ne5?. The knight attacks the bishop on c4, and the knight on f3 looks pinned: if it moves, the bishop on g4 takes the queen.
8.Nxe5! takes the knight on e5 all the same and gives up the queen. If Black takes it, 8…Bxd1 9.Bxf7+ Ke7 10.Nd5# is mate: the bishop and the two knights control every free square around the king. If Black leaves the queen alone, Black still loses a piece. Légal’s mate is one of the checkmate patterns every player should know.
Why it works: a pin on the queen is not a real pin, because the queen can be given. The lesson for Black is to develop the knights before pinning with …Bg4. The lesson for White: when your knight is pinned to the queen, ask what it could do if the queen were not there.
2. The c5 bishop falls, in the Scotch Gambit
After 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4 Bc5 5.c3, Black takes a second pawn with 5…dxc3?. It looks greedy but safe. It is not: nothing defends the bishop on c5, and only the king defends f7.
6.Bxf7+! Kxf7 7.Qd5+ is the point. The bishop is given to draw the king to f7, and the queen check then hits the king and the loose bishop at the same time, a fork with check. After 7…Kf8 8.Qxc5+, White has won the piece back. Black keeps an extra pawn for the moment, but the king has lost the right to castle.
Not every trap wins material on the spot: this one gives White the better game against a king that can no longer castle. The fix for Black is simple: before taking on c3, make sure the bishop on c5 is defended.
3. Mate by double check, after 3…d5
Black does not have to take on d4. With 3…d5, Black hits back in the centre, and one line goes 4.Nc3 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Bg4 6.Be2 exd4 7.Nxd4 Bxe2 8.Qxe2. Now the white knight on d4 is attacked twice and defended by nothing, and Black takes it: 8…Qxd4??.
9.Nf6+! is a double check: the knight checks from f6, and by leaving e4 it uncovers a second check from the queen on e2. Only a king move can answer two checks at once, and the king has a single square: 9…Kd8, then 10.Qe8#. Taking on d4 with the knight instead is no better: after 8…Nxd4??, 9.Nf6# is mate at once.
Why it works: a double check can only be answered by moving the king. Black’s best move was a check of its own, 8…Bb4+, before anything else. More generally, when your king is still on e8 and a white knight stands in front of the queen on the e-file, look at every square that knight can reach with check before you take anything.
The seven other traps, in the book
Lesson 12 of The Scotch Game in Twelve Lessons gathers ten traps, each with its bait, its refutation and how to avoid it. Besides the three above, it covers:
- The queen that takes g2
- Nxc6, then Bxc5
- The poisoned e4 pawn
- …Qh4+ and …Nxg3
- The greedy queen on g7
- The pin on the e-file
- The queen on h4, caught by a check
Two of them catch White. When you play the Scotch with White, the traps that work against you matter as much as the ones that work for you.
How to use these traps in your games
- Play good moves, not traps. The traps come by themselves when your opponent grabs material or pins too early.
- Before you grab, look at your opponent’s checks. In two of these traps, the free material is the bait.
- Count the defenders of f7 and f2 before castling, and of every piece you leave on its own.
- Play each trap on a board from both sides, until you can set it up from memory.
The motifs behind these traps, the pin, the fork and the double check, come back again and again in the Scotch: our article on how to play the Scotch Game explains the five motifs of the opening, and the one on the discovered attack shows how a double check works.