I bought the Gutman book years ago, and enjoyed all the variations except 6Be2, which I was sadly not aware until in a recent tournament was not only the current main line but one that got Black into trouble if, like me, he was not sure what to do.

Gutman has Wells as saying 6...Nf6 is the only viable line, but a recent video on chess.com by GM Delchev examines 7Nf5 (not even 0-0 first) as crushing for White. Chessbase online database to 26 Aug 22 has 8 games all won by White.

As one tends to get when having invested time in an opening by default (like buying a book years ago as it looked fun), I am a little despondent now with my pet ...Qh4. Looks like Scotch players of most levels all now know to play 6Be2 and then Nf5 soon after ...Nf6, and I should simply learn to play classically then. Those lines with Qxe4 and having to play Kd8 just seem silly to undertake voluntarily for me personally. Anyway. Apropos the observation about who knows lines anyway - I had moved into the attitude of 'play better chess and try to remember fewer lines' until I recently played a tournament where my young 1500s opponent blitzed out the correct 16 moves in a sideline in an Open Spanish (with 9Nd2 instead of c3 when I was trying to play the Dilworth), although he had looked at my games online after the draw. Nevertheless, it was a bit disconcerting, as the sideline in question was not amongst my online games!

Never too old to try to learn...

It's certainly interesting. For what it's worth, in our online thematic tournament (from which I posted a game earlier), the position after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Qh4 5.Nc3 Bb4 6.Be2 Qxe4 7.Nb5 Bxc3+ 8.bxc3 Kd8 9.0-0 Nf6 has been reached 11 times, and most of the games look like being draws.

VGA wrote on 08/14/17 at 15:18:27:


Are you serious?   Wow, that is NOT something that I'd like to play as Black without serious preparation.  Maybe a GM could defend that, or a correspondence player, but that should whet your appetite if you have the White pieces in an over-the-board game.

Hello, this is my first post in this forum.

I recently borrowed the John Emms Starting Out The Scotch book from a friend and did a practice game versus a ~1800 rated engine in Lucas Chess, while taking a looksie in the book for guidance. My rating is about 1700-1800.

I don't remember the game exactly but with the help of Stockfish I recreated it as best I can remember



So I am a pawn down and with a destroyed pawn structure and with some compensation that someone on my level probably cannot capitalise on. Even having the help of excellent/theory moves, and Black just playing natural, easy to find moves in some sideline, having the initiative for quite a while.

This looks uncomfortable to me for White. It put me off the Scotch. Is it just how the cookie crumbles or am I missing something?

Confused_by_Theory wrote on 06/15/17 at 18:31:15:


Nice analysis. Just one query: in the 17...Kc8 line, what happens after 22...Rxh6 - ?

Confused_by_Theory wrote on 06/15/17 at 18:31:15:


You're not a used car salesman by any chance, are you?

fjd wrote on 06/12/17 at 20:51:16:


Yes, my own engine (Houdini 4) flagged that as a possibility. In response it suggests 14...h5!? 15 cxd6 (15 h3 Qf5, 15 Qb3 Bxf3 16 Qxf3 Qe4) 15...cxd6 16 Ba3 Rc8 17 Bxd6 (17 Qb3 Bxf3 18 Qxf3 Ne4) 17...Nd5 and claims equality, though I can't say I'd be too keen to try and defend it without computer assistance over the board.

Currently playing in a 4...Qh4 thematic tournament at chessworld.net. Eleven of the games reached the critical position after 9...Nf6.

fjd wrote on 03/17/17 at 03:23:22:


Here's a just finished game with 10 Nd4:

[Event "Chessworld.net"]
[Date "2017.??.??"]
[White "juliangon"]
[Black "tsmenace"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "C45"]
[PlyCount "58"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Qh4 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. Be2 Qxe4 7. Ndb5 Bxc3+ 8. bxc3 Kd8 9. O-O Nf6 10. Nd4 Nxd4 11. cxd4 d6 12. Bg5 Qf5 13. Bh4 h6 14. Re1 g5 15. Bg3 Re8 16. c4 b6 17. Bf3 Rb8 18. Qb3 Bb7 19. d5 Nd7 20. Re3 Rxe3 21. Qxe3 Ne5 22. Re1 Bc8 23. Be4 Qf6 24. Qc3 Nd7 25. Qd2 Nc5 26. f3 Ba6 27. Bf2 Nxe4 28. Rxe4 Kc8 29. Qd1 Kb7 1/2-1/2

Confused_by_Theory wrote on 03/23/17 at 20:47:34:


I was going to try that in one game, but my opponent replied to 10 Re1 with 10...h6!?. A few moves further on, I didn't seem to have much of an advantage. Possibly 11 Be3 at once is a better try.

[Event "Chessworld.net"]
[Date "2017.??.??"]
[White "tsmenace"]
[Black "AndyAndyO"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "C45"]
[PlyCount "38"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Qh4 5. Nc3 Bb4 6. Be2 Qxe4 7. Ndb5 Bxc3+ 8. bxc3 Kd8 9. O-O Nf6 10. Re1 h6 11. Rb1 Re8 12. Be3 d6 13. c4 Bd7 14. Nc3 Qe5 15. Qd2 b6 16. Bf3 Qa5 17. Rb5 Qa3 18. Rb3 Qa5 19. Rb5 Qa3 1/2-1/2