Scotch Flashcards
What is the most common variation of the Scotch?
- e4 e5, 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Nxd4 5. Qxd4
What is the typical plan in the 4…Nxd4 variation?
Play Nc3, Bg4, Qe2, c3, castle queenside and attack with g4 and h4.
What do we play against c5 in the 4…Nxd4 variation?
We play Qe3, followed by Nf3, b3, Bb2, O-O-O, with the plan to attack the weak backward d-pawn. We control the d5 square.
What do we play against Qf6 in the 4…Nxd4 variation?
We play Be3 to exchange queens on our terms. Our bishop on d4 is strong on the long a1-h8 diagonal and we go for the c7 weak point with Nc3, Nb5.
What do we play after 4…Qh4 (YouTube variation)?
We counterattack by playing Nb5 going for the c7 weak point. We always look for a c7 attack when the queen moves early.
What do we play after 4…d6 (Harmless variation)?
We go for our usual setup: Nc3, Bf4, Qe2, O-O-O, f3 and attack the kingside with g4, h4. We do not play Nxc6.
What do we play after 4…g6 5…Bg7 (Hook variation)?
We go for our usual setup, but we put our bishop on e3 and not on f4. We double protect our knight on d4. Our attack on the kingside will be even faster, because Black has created a hook on g6.
What do we play after 4…Qf6 (Tricky variation)?
We retreat the knight to f3, preventing Bc5, with an X-Ray on our weak f2 square. We then exploit the misplaced queen position by attacking it and the weak c7 square via Nc3, Nd5.
What do we play after 3…d5 (Ritter Sport variation)?
We play Nxe5 and go for a queen exchange and better endgame after …Nxe5, dxe5 dxe4, Qxd8, Kxd8, Nc3.
What do we play after 4…d5 (Rohrkrepierer variation)?
This time we take Nxc6, bxc6, exd5, cxd5, and now comes Bb5+! winning at least a pawn.
What do we play after 4…Nf6 (Dead knight variation)?
We take Nxc6, bxc6, and then go for e5 harassing the knight, after …Nd5 we play c4, followed by …Nb6, Bd3 immobilizing the knight and targeting the kingside with our bishops and queen.
What do we play after 4…Bc5 (Forced bishop exchange variation)?
We retreat the knight Nb3; then we play Qe2, Be3 to force our opponent to exchange bishops on e3. We castle long and go for our kingside attack. If Black wants to have counterplay on the queenside he will go for the bishop exchange, because on b6 it is blocking his own pawns.
