Scholar's Mate:
Part of the Famous Checkmates Guide

Chess Endgame Guide
Famous Checkmates
[Scholar's Mate]

Scholar's Mate
- Overview -

Famous Checkmates - Scholars Mate This quick chess game achieves Mate in 4 Moves.

Scholar's Mate sees Black attempting to threaten White's Queen, but totally missing the threat to Black's King by White's Queen, who is backed-up by her King's Bishop to secure this
"4 Move Checkmate".

Scholar's
- ChessFlash Viewer -

Scholar's Mate
- Video Example -

PGN File(s) [+]Show

Video Commentary

Move 1,
[Timeline, 0:09],
White starts with the advance of his King's Pawn to e4 ... Black mirrors that by moving his to e5.

Move 2,
[Timeline, 0:16],
White's King-side Bishop take up position on c4 (this is key to White eventually winning this game) ... Black's response is to move his King-side Bishop to sit safely facing White's Bishop, on c5.

Move 3,
[Timeline, 0:26],
White's Queen emerges to take up her pre-mating move, by positioning onto h5 ... Black, seeing what he thinks is the direct threat, understandably - but also unwittingly - brings out his King-side kNight to f6 and threatens White's Queen.

Unfortunately, that's all part of White's Trap:

Move 4,
[Timeline, 0:34],
White's Queen captures (x) Black's f7 Pawn and, because of the back-up provided by White's Bishop - on c4 - it's also Checkmate (#).

White's Victory (1-0).