Mieses Variation

The Mieses Variation is the main answer to the Schmidt Variation of the Scotch Game. Rather than protect e4 with 6. Bd3 or 6. Nd2, White pushes the pawn, evicting the knight from f6 and cramping Black, who is left with doubled c-pawns. Black's main ways of dealing with the pawn on e5 are 6...Qe7 and 6...Nd5, which are about equally popular on Lichess, with 6...Ne4 a distant third. The forcing main line runs 6...Qe7 7. Qe2 Nd5 8. c4, after which Black chooses between retreating with 8...Nb6 and pinning the c4-pawn against the queen with 8...Ba6. Against 8...Nb6, modern practice favors 9. Nc3, 9. Nd2 or 9. b3 with a queenside fianchetto over the older 9. Bf4. Playing 6...Nd5 at once is a quieter route that sidesteps this theory.

The variation takes its name from Jacques Mieses, who used it several times at Hastings 1895, beating Joseph Henry Blackburne with it in the first round. Garry Kasparov adopted it often. The engine considers the position balanced, and online results are close to even, with White doing better against 6...Nd5 and Black against 6...Qe7.