Lolli Variation

The Lolli Variation, 3...Nxd4, is Black's least orthodox answer to the Scotch Game. Instead of taking with the e-pawn, Black removes the d-pawn with the knight. This leaves e5 without its defender and invites a knight exchange that brings White's queen to the center with no loss of time. After 4. Nxd4 exd4 5. Qxd4, Black has spent two moves on a knight that is no longer on the board. The queen on d4 is hard to dislodge, and the obvious attempt, 5...c5, creates serious weaknesses and blocks the king's bishop. The same position can arise from the main Scotch move order, 3...exd4 4. Nxd4 Nxd4 5. Qxd4.

The recapture 4. Nxd4 is by far the most common reply. In the main line Black develops around the queen and looks to gain tempi on it later. The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings gives a line attributed to Ivan Sokolov as sufficient for equality: 5...Ne7 6. Bc4 Nc6 7. Qd5 Qf6 8. O-O Ne5 9. Be2 c6 10. Qb3 Ng6 11. f4 Bc5+ 12. Kh1 d6. Harald Keilhack, in Knight on the Left: 1.Nc3, examines the quieter 5...d6 6. Nc3 Nf6 7. Bc4 Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. Bg5 c6 10. a4 Qa5 11. Bh4. He concludes that after 11...Qe5 or 11...Be6, White keeps nothing beyond the nominal edge of the first move. Instead of recapturing, White can play 4. Nxd4 exd4 5. Bc4, the Napoleon Gambit, which leaves the pawn on d4 for the sake of development.

The main alternative is 4. Nxe5, which wins back the pawn at once and keeps a knight in the center. It also threatens Qxd4, because the black knight has lost the support of the e5-pawn. ECO considers the retreat 4...Ne6 adequate, following 5. Bc4 Nf6 6. Nc3 Be7 7. O-O O-O 8. Be3 d6 9. Nd3 Nxe4 10. Nxe4 d5, a line credited to Parma. The rarer 4. Ng5 has given Black results roughly equal to White's in online play.

In the nineteenth century the variation was popular enough for Freeborough and Ranken's 1896 manual Chess Openings Ancient and Modern to devote five columns of analysis to it. Modern sources usually treat it as a strategic mistake, though a 2023 monograph by Marek Soszynski is devoted to it. The engine gives White a slight edge. In a large sample of online games White wins about 55% against roughly 41% for Black, a better return than White typically gets against the main 3...exd4.