This is a summary of the lines following the opening 1.e4 e5 2.Sf3 Sc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Lc4 for the club level player. This can lead to variations of the Two Knights Defence and the Giuoco Piano, as well as the dreaded Max Lange Attack. It is a reasonable choice of opening system for players who thrive on sharp, double-edged positions (a.k.a. cheapo merchants) and it's easy to learn the basic ideas. It's also usually worth a good 15 minutes on the clock in the opening stages, in my experience. I haven't covered everything, but there should be more here than an average club player needs to know.

Partiene Jiangchuan - Svidler og Zorko - Atalik med åpningen Scotch Gambit er kommentert her. (joj)

1. e4 e5 2. Sf3 Sc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Lc4 Lc5

Black defends his extra pawn and develops his bishop. He plans Sf6, d6 and castling.

5. c3

Now black has 3 main options.Option a):

5... dxc3

5... d3 Option b). This move, suggested by Keene as an antidote to 5.c3, stops white building a pawn center with cxd4 and hinders the knight on b1. That said, white gets a decent game anyway by grabbing queenside space. 6. b4 Lb6 7. Db3 Df6 8. O-O d6 9. a4 a6 10. a5 La7 11. b5! Se5 (11... axb5 12. a6 bxa6 13. Ld5 Sge7 (13... Lb7 14. Txa6 Lxf2+ 15. Txf2 Txa6 16. Sg5) 14. Lg5 better for white) 12. Sxe5 dxe5 13. bxa6 bxa6 14. Da4+ Ld7 15. Dd1 Se7 16. Dxd3 Lc8 17. Sa3 is slightly better for white

5... Sf6 Option c). This has transposed to a line of the Giuoco Piano. 6. cxd4 Lb4+ (6... Lb6 7. d5 Se7 8. e5 Sg4 9. d6! is better for white) 7. Ld2 Lxd2+ (7... Sxe4 8. Lxb4 Sxb4 9. Lxf7+ that trick again 9... Kxf7 10. Db3+ d5 11. Dxb4 a bit better for white) 8. Sbxd2 d5 9. exd5 Sxd5 10. Db3 Sce7 11. O-O O-O 12. Tfe1 c6 White is happier because his rooks have open files and his knights have good scope.

6. Lxf7+ Kxf7 7. Dd5+ Kf8 8. Dxc5+ d6

8... De7 9. Dxc3 Dxe4+ 10. Le3 d6 is often given as being equal, with white having enough compensation for the pawn. Although black's king is exposed and his rook is stuck in the corner for now, it isn't easy for white to generate a convincing attack. However white can gain time by attacking the black queen and has chances. Anyway, if you don't fancy that one there's always the obvious cop-out - 9.Dxe7+ Sgxe7 10.Sxc3 which is dead equal

9. Dc4

This position has to be o.k. for white, but it'll probably be the better player who wins. To get some idea where white can go from here, the game Sveshnikov-Kupreichik (Hastings, 1984) went:

9... Lg4

9... cxb2 10. Lxb2 When this happens white usually gets a stonking attack

10. Sxc3 Lxf3 11. gxf3 Df6 12. f4 Df7 13. Db5 Sd4 14. Dd3 Se6 15. f5 Sc5 16. Dc2 Dc4 17. Le3 Sf6 18. O-O-O Te8

18... Sfxe4 19. Td4 wins a piece

19. f3 Scd7 20. Td4 Dc6 21. Kb1 Te7 22. De2 Se5 23. Lg5 Dc5 24. Thd1 Sc6 25. Tc4 De5 26. Sd5 Tf7 27. Lf4 De8 28. Sxc7 Txc7 29. Lxd6+ Te7 30. e5 Sd7 31. f4 h5 32. Dd3 Th6 33. Lxe7+ Kxe7 34. Da3+ Kf7 35. e6+ Txe6 36. fxe6+ Dxe6 37. Dd3 Sf6 38. f5 De5 39. Tc2 Kg8 40. Te2 Dc5 41. a3 Kh7 42. Tg2 Se5 43. Dc2 De3 44. Tdg1 Seg4

and black resigned - A game worth seeing but probably not much use to us club level cloggers. The other main option is 9.Dxc3, but all the games I could find with this in ended in draws.

1-0 [http://www.dazj.demon.co.uk/scotgam.html]

1. e4 e5 2. Sf3 Sc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Lc4 Sf6

This is usually given as black's best move. It leads to a lot of very equal positions if played properly (a big if!)

5. O-O

Now black has an important choice:

5... Sxe4

Option a). The Anti-Max Lange. This leads to a well-known crowd pleasing sequence.

5... Lc5 6. e5 Option b). The Max Lange Attack - pass me my sunglasses! One of the most over-analysed lines in chess theory and the jury is still out. Very complicated in places, so the following is only a taster. 6... d5 7. exf6 There is always the reasonable move 7.Lb5 if your opponent plays 6....d5 with suspicious speed, or you just can't be bothered with the complications. 7... dxc4 8. Te1+ This is thought to be the best line - though 8.fxg7 gets played as well 8... Le6 This is what usually happens. The alternative 8.....Kf8, which is dismissed by Basman as a consistant failure, can continue 9.Lg5 gxf6 10.Lh6+ Kg8 11.Sc3 Lf8 12.Lxf8 Kxf8 13.Se4 f5 14.Sg3 when white's lead in development and the wrecked black king-side are meant to more than make up for the 2 pawn deficit according to Smith & Hall. BCO2 gives it as equal. I haven't got a clue, but Fritz5 agrees with BCO2 that the best line is 12.Sxd4 Lxh6 13.Sxc6 Dxd1 14.Se7+ Kg7 15.Taxd1. So, in the style of much recent chess literature, lets just gloss over that one 9. Sg5 Dd5 (9... Dxf6 10. Sxe6 fxe6 11. Dh5+ wins the bishop.) 10. Sc3 Df5 11. Sce4 O-O-O Black has at least four other playable options here. This is thought to be best.......so that's them dealt with then. 12. g4 De5 Kostas Domoras - a hard drinking club member - reckons there's a line here where black plays Dg6, sacking a piece, and wins - I can't find this anywhere so I remain to be convinced. 13. Sxe6 fxe6 14. fxg7 Thg8 15. Lh6 d3 16. c3 Now black has 3 main options. a).16.....Ld6 b).16.....Le7 c).16.....d2 16... Ld6 This allows white to activate his king-side pawns.(16... Le7 17. f4 Dd5 18. Dd2 Td7 19. Te3 Sd8 20. b3 Sf7 21. bxc4 Da5 22. Th3 Sxh6 23. Txh6 Txg7 24. h3 and white has a small plus.) (16... 16... d2 When people say of the Max Lange that the player who knows most will win, they have lines like this in mind. You can see how one slip by either side could be TFTBB (time for tubby bye-byes - a teletubbies reference, if you haven't heard of them don't worry, you're not missing anything). 17. Te2 Td3 18. Df1 Dd5 19. Td1 Se5 20. Dg2! On 20.Sf6 Df3 21.Sxg8 Dxg4+ 22.Kh1 Df3+ is perpetual, as 23.Dg2 loses the rook on e2. 20... Sf3+ 21. Kf1 Le7 22. g5 Df5 23. h3 Sh4 24. Sg3 Df3 25. Dxf3 Sxf3 26. Se4 Kd7 So that 27.Sf6 Lxf6 28.gxf6 Ke8 and the king blocks the pawn. 27. Te3 Txe3 28. fxe3 Ke8 29. Ke2 Sh4 30. Sf6+ Lxf6 31. gxf6 Kf7 32. Lg5 Sf5 33. e4! 1-0 - That's enough Max Lange or we'll be here all day.) 17. f4 Dd5 18. Df3 Le7 Fritz plays 18.....e5 here but after 19.f5 white's kingside pawns are starting to mass in the penalty box. 19. g5 Df5 20. Sg3 Df7 21. Dg4 Tde8 Smith + Hall say 21.....d2 is a better try but don't follow it up, so all we have to go on is the game we're looking at here - Marshall v Tarrasch. The rest went 22.Te4! b5 23.a4! a6 24.axb5 axb5 25.Kg2! Sd8 26.Df3 Dg6 27.Td4! c6 28.Txd8+ Kxd8 29.Qxc61-0

6. Te1 d5 7. Lxd5

Worth a look is 7. Lb5 which should definitely get black out of the book. M.Illescas-D.Garcia went 7... Le7 8. Sxd4 Ld7 9. c4 Sxd4 10. Lxd7+ Dxd7 11. Dxd4 O-O?? 12. Txe4 This is the only game I can find with this line. Obviously black's 10th move was garbage - but this line is probably o.k. anyway because Illescas is a decent player.

7... Dxd5 8. Sc3

Now black has to decide where to stick his queen. The 3 usual candidates are: (i) 8.....Dd8 (ii) 8.....Dh5 (iii) 8.. ... Da5

8... Dd8

8... Dh5 9. Sxe4 Le6 10. Lg5 Lb4 (If 10... Le7 11. Lxe7 Sxe7 12. Sxd4 Dxd1 13. Taxd1 O-O-O 14. Sg5! gives white a slight edge.) (If 10... h6 11. Lf6 Da5 12. Sxd4 gxf6 13. Sxf6+ Ke7 14. b4! Sxb4 15. Sxe6! Kxf6 16. Dd4+ wins.) (If 10... Ld6 11. Sxd6+ cxd6 12. Lf4 O-O 13. Sxd4 and white has a small advantage due to the black pawn weakness) 11. Sxd4 Dxd1 12. Texd1 Sxd4 13. Txd4 Le7 14. Te1 Td8 15. Ta4 With a slight advantage to white.

8... Da5 Probably the best. 9. Sxe4 Le6 10. Ld2 The other options 10.Lg5 and 10.Seg5 are no better. Now black's choices are: (x) 10.....Df5 (y) 10.....Lb4 (z) 10.....Dd5 (x) 10... Df5 ((y) 10... Lb4 Basman thinks this is black's most energetic line. It does allow another of those fake sacs for white though. 11. Sxd4 Sxd4 12. c3 O-O "a sound move which should equalize". [ The other likely move is 12.....Le7. The main line goes 12....Le7 13.cxd4 Dd5 14.Lb4 Lxb4 15.Da4+ Dc6 16.Dxb4 0-0-0 17.Sc5 Ld5 18.Tac1 Dg6 19.g3 now Smith & Hall give 19....Db6 20.Da3 as slightly better for white due to the half-open c-file. Black can try 19....Lc6 or 19....Dg4(Fritz) here though.] 13. cxb4 Dd5 14. Tc1 b6 15. Txc7 Tad8 16. Lc3 Sb5 17. Df3 Sxc3 (17... Sxc7 18. Sf6+ gxf6 19. Dxf6) 18. Dxc3 Tc8 Black's active pieces are supposed to compensate for the pawn.) ((z) 10... Dd5 This is the most common move. 11. Lg5 Ld6 12. Lf6 O-O 13. Sxd4 Sxd4 14. Dxd4 Dxd4 15. Lxd4 Tfd8 16. Sxd6 Txd6 A good time to agree a draw - the bar awaits.) 11. Lg5 Ld6 12. Sxd4 Sxd4 13. Dxd4 O-O 14. Sxd6 Dxg5 is about equal.

9. Txe4+ Le7

Here black could well play Le6 automatically as it is the usual move in most other lines. Basman showed how to continue spectacularly in a game that went

9... Le6 10. Sxd4 Sxd4 11. Txd4 Dc8 12. Lg5 f6 13. Lxf6 gxf6 14. Dh5+ Lf7 15. Te1+ Le7 16. Txe7+ Kxe7 17. Dc5+ Ke8 18. Te4+ Le6 19. Sd5 wins quickly

10. Sxd4 f5 11. Tf4 O-O 12. Sxc6 Dxd1+ 13. Sxd1 bxc6 14. Tc4 Ld6 15. Sc3

Black has 2 bishops in an open position but has weak c pawns

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1. e4 e5 2. Sf3 Sc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Lc4

Black has many other options on move 4, mostly bad. Early queen wanderings e.g. 4.....De7 or 4.....Df6 are wrong on basic principles because the queen gets in the way and becomes a target. Harmless pawn moves, like 4.....h6 which is played I assume to prevent the Fried Liver Attack 5.Sg5, just waste valuable time. 4.....d3 gives white a pawn centre. The 3 most reasonable other 4th moves are: a). 4.....d6 b). 4.... .Le7 c). 4.....Lb4+

4... d6

This gives black a sort of Philidor. The game might go...

4... Le7 Not great. 5. c3 Cheapo alert! If 5.....dxc3 then 6.Dd5 and the Le7 gets in the way. This line continues 6.....Sh6 7.Lxh6 0-0 8.Sxc3 (After 8.Lc1 then 8... .Sb4 9.Dd1 c2 makes a fight of it for black) 8....gxh6 and the black king is gagging for it. 5... Sf6 6. e5 Sg4 7. cxd4 and white has a meaty center with quick development.

4... Lb4+ This is one of the few proper gambit lines. 5. c3 dxc3 6. O-O c2 If 6....cxb2 7.Lxb2 gives white a beast of an attack. Any attacking white player worth his salt should enjoy this kind of position. 7. Dxc2 Sge7 Staunton-Popert (ah yes, I remember it well) went 7.....d6 8.a3 La5 9.b4 Lb6 10.Lb2 Sf6 11.e5! dxe5 12.Sxe5 Sxe5 13.Lxe5 0-0 14.Sc3 Sg4 15.Lg3 Dg5 16.Tae1 Lf5 17.Db3 Sf6 18. Te7 8. a3 La5 9. b4 Lb6 10. Lb2 Again white has good attacking chances.

5. Sxd4 Sf6 6. Sc3 Le7 7. O-O O-O 8. f3 Te8 9. Le3 Se5 10. Lb3

and white has an advantage. So, that's yer lot. The potted Scotch Gambit. In practice, I've found that opponents play the lines from part 3 in two thirds of games, with 4. ....d6 being the favourite. In three years of playing this opening in league and tournament I've only got to the Max Lange once, so I wouldn't worry about that one too much.

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