Scholar's mate

In chess, scholar's mate is the checkmate which occurs after the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Qxf7#. The moves may be played in a different order or with slight variations, but the basic idea – the queen and bishop combining in an attack on f7 (or f2 if Black is performing the mate) is the same. Sometimes scholar's mate is referred to as the four-move checkmate, however, there are other ways to checkmate in four moves.

Avoiding scholar's mate

Unlike fool's mate, which rarely occurs at any level (and with which scholar's mate is sometimes confused), games ending in scholar's mate are quite common among beginners. However, it can be easily avoided; after 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 Nc6 3.Bc4, for example, scholar's mate may occur after 3...Nf6 4.Qxf7#, but 3...g6 instead, defends against the mate. The move 4.Qf3, renewing the Qxf7 threat, is easily met by 4...Nf6. Black can later fianchetto his bishop by developing it to g7.

Openings

Though the actual mate is almost never seen at any level above beginner, the basic idea underlying it – that the f7 square, being defended only by Black's king, is weak and therefore a good target for attack – motivates a number of chess openings. For example, after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 (the Two Knights Defense), White's most popular move is 4.Ng5, attacking f7, which is awkward for Black to defend. The Fried Liver Attack involves a knight sacrifice on f7.

The Parham Attack (1.e4 e5 2.Qh5!?) and Napoleon Opening (1.e4 e5 2.Qf3?!) are both directed at threatening scholar's mate with 3.Bc4 on the next move. Although the Napoleon Opening is never seen in high-level games, the Parham Attack has occasionally been played in serious tournament games by grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura.

Names around the world

In some areas, including France, Turkey, Germany, and the Netherlands, as well as Spain, Brazil, and Portugal, "scholar's mate" is known as "shepherd's mate". In Italy it is known as "barber's mate", in Iran, Greece and most of the Arab world as "Napoleon's Plan", in Russia as "children's mate" and in Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Slovenia, and Israel as "shoemaker's mate". It has also occasionally been given other names in English-speaking countries, such as "schoolboy's mate" and "Blitzkrieg"; German for "lightning war"harvcol|Kidder|1960.

References

* citation
last1=Hooper | first1=David | authorlink1=David Vincent Hooper
last2=Whyld | first2=Kenneth | authorlink2=Kenneth Whyld
title=The Oxford Companion to Chess
year=1992
edition=second
publisher=Oxford University Press
isbn=0-19-280049-3
* Citation
last=Kidder|first=Harvey
title=Illustrated Chess for Children
year=1960
publisher=Doubleday
ID=ISBN 0-385-05764-4
* citation
last=Sunnucks | first=Anne |authorlink=Anne Sunnucks
year=1970
title=The Encyclopaedia of Chess
publisher=St. Martins Press
ISBN=978-0709146971