The Scotch Game, or Scotch Opening, is a chess opening that begins with the moves
- 1. e4 e5
- 2. Nf3 Nc6
- 3. d4
Ercole del Rio, in his 1750 treatise Sopra il giuoco degli Scacchi, Osservazioni pratiche d’anonimo Autore Modense (On the game of Chess, practical Observations by an anonymous Modenese Author), was the first author to mention what is now called the Scotch Game. The opening received its name from a correspondence match in 1824 between Edinburgh and London. Popular in the 19th century, by 1900 the Scotch had lost favour among top players because it was thought to release the central tension too early and allow Black to equalise without difficulty. More modernly, grandmasters Kasparov and Timman helped to re-popularize the Scotch, when they used it as a surprise weapon to avoid the well-analysed Ruy Lopez.
Read more about Scotch Game: Analysis, Main Variations
Famous quotes containing the words scotch and/or game:
“In Rangoon the heat of noon
Is just what the natives shun.
They put their Scotch or rye down
And lie down.”
—Noël Coward (1899–1973)
“My first big mistake was made when, in a moment of weakness, I consented to learn the game; for a man who can frankly say “I do not play bridge” is allowed to go over in the corner and run the pianola by himself, while the poor neophyte, no matter how much he may protest that he isn’t “at all a good player, in fact I’m perfectly rotten,” is never believed, but dragged into a game where it is discovered, too late, that he spoke the truth.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)