An opening course for White (ECO C45)
The Scotch opens 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4, giving up the d-pawn for the e5-pawn so that White still has a pawn in the centre while Black does not. The bill is a tempo, because the knight that recaptures on d4 has already moved once. This course plays 4.Nxd4 and meets 4...g6 and 4...d6 the same way, with 5.Nxc6, which leaves Black with doubled c-pawns and White with the more flexible structure. Against 4...Nf6 you get both answers: 5.Nxc6 and the Mieses, which is the main line of the whole opening, and the quieter 5.Nc3 heading for the Scotch Four Knights. Kasparov put the opening back into top-level practice in the early 1990s, and the practical case for it is that most 1...e5 players spend their preparation on the Ruy Lopez and the Italian instead.
This course is part of your daily work.
When Black plays 4...g6 or 4...d6 rather than fighting for the centre, the answer is 5.Nxc6 in both cases. After 5...bxc6 the c- and d-pawns still span the middle of the board and the doubled c-pawns and lone a-pawn are the long-term targets, while White gains room with f2-f4 or c2-c4.
Put the bishop on c4 while the d-pawn is still at home, because from d3 it would let Black play ...d7-d5 in one move. Once Black has committed to ...d6, d3 becomes the right square: the bishop props up e4 and White prepares to push in the centre with f2-f4.
After ...g6 the bishop is going to g7, and White would like it off the board. The route is Be3 and then Bd4, which is why the light-squared bishop belongs on c4 rather than on d3, where it would get in the way of that manoeuvre.
After 4...Nf6 5.Nc3 Bb4 the exchanges on c6 and d5 leave a symmetrical pawn count and a fight over two things: White's bishop pair, and the outpost Black gets on e4. Nobody is trying to punish anybody, so the moves are about where the pieces belong: White wants the position opened for the bishops, Black wants a knight parked on e4.
Learning order, one scoresheet per chapter. The coach serves review one line a day; enter any line directly when you want it now.
Against 4...g6 and 4...d6 the reply is the same: take on c6 and play with the extra room. What changes between them is where the light-squared bishop goes, and Black's own d-pawn decides between c4 and d3.
Three short lessons, each about a move Black plays by habit. The first is a recapture, the other two share the same wrong developing move and split at Black's ninth.
Black's most respected fourth move puts a second attacker on the knight, so White has to exchange it, reinforce it or move it. This course reinforces with 5.Be3 and counts attackers against defenders from there. Two punishments first, because both come from Black playing a natural developing move without doing that count.
4...Nf6 5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.e5 is the sharpest thing White has and the most played line in the whole Scotch. Kasparov used it for a decade. Two branches at Black's eighth move, and be warned: what is written down publicly runs out early here, so both drills stop where the moves stop being anybody's recommendation.
If the Mieses looks like more sharpness than you want, 5.Nc3 is the other way to meet 4...Nf6, and it is the one with proper published analysis behind it. The pin comes, the exchanges follow, and both sides get what they want: White the bishop pair, Black a knight on e4. Play it as a middlegame, not as a race.
Club games that started in the Scotch Game produced these tactics, and you solve every one from White's side, the seat you actually sit in. Difficulty follows your solving, the same as the puzzle room.
The Scotch Game is the chess opening that begins 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4, and it is filed under ECO C45. This course teaches it from White's side in 14 drills across 5 chapters, with a coach note on the moves that need one, every position checked with Stockfish at depth 20, and every plan credited to the author who wrote it down.
Lines you will drill
Theory credited to
10 branches are deliberately not drilled here, and the course records which and why rather than leaving the gap silent.
Questions
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