Scotch Game

The Scotch Game, also called the Scotch Opening, arises after 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4. Instead of developing a bishop first, as in the Ruy Lopez or the Italian Game, White confronts e5 at once, intending to swap the d-pawn for Black's e-pawn and obtain a free hand in the center. Black has no comfortable way to keep a pawn on e5, so 3...exd4 is played in roughly three games out of four. The resulting positions are open, and the engine assesses the starting position as roughly balanced.

After 3...exd4 4. Nxd4 play revolves around the knight on d4. The Classical Variation, 4...Bc5, attacks it immediately, and White must defend, exchange or retreat it: 5. Be3 Qf6 6. c3 Nge7 is the traditional treatment, 5. Nb3 is the Potter Variation, revived in the 2000s by Vassily Ivanchuk and Magnus Carlsen, and 5. Nxc6 meets the in-between move 5...Qf6, whose threat against f2 allows Black to recapture on c6 with the d-pawn. The Schmidt Variation, 4...Nf6, normally continues 5. Nxc6 bxc6, a typical Scotch structure in which Black accepts doubled c-pawns in return for central pawns and open files; the sharp Mieses Variation, 6. e5, was a regular choice of Garry Kasparov, while 5. Nc3 transposes to the Four Knights Game. Rarer tries are the Steinitz Variation, 4...Qh4, which targets e4 but tends to leave the black king exposed, and the Malaniuk Variation, 4...Bb4+, chosen mainly to avoid the heavily analyzed main lines.

White can also give up material on move four. The Scotch Gambit, 4. Bc4, aims at f7 and frequently transposes elsewhere: 4...Nf6 enters the Two Knights Defense, and 4...Bc5 5. c3 Nf6 reaches the Giuoco Piano. The Göring Gambit, 4. c3, offers one or two pawns for development along the lines of the Danish Gambit, and the Relfsson Gambit, 4. Bb5, is a curiosity. Of Black's third-move alternatives, 3...d6 leads to Philidor-type positions in which 4. d5 gains space with tempo, while 3...Nxd4, the Lolli Variation, is regarded as dubious; after 4. Nxd4 exd4 5. Qxd4 White's queen is strongly centralized, and White scores well in practice.

Ercole del Rio first described the opening in a treatise of 1750, and its name comes from an 1824 correspondence match between Edinburgh and London. Widely played in the nineteenth century, it fell out of fashion around 1900 because the early central exchange was thought to give Black easy equality. Kasparov restored it to elite practice late in the twentieth century as a way of sidestepping Ruy Lopez theory while posing long-term strategic problems, and Jan Timman and Sergei Rublevsky have also championed it. It remains one of the most frequently reached named openings in online play.