How to Achieve Checkmate in 4 Moves | Chess

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Hi, coach Russ here with ChessNYC, and today I'm going to be talking to you about the four move checkmate, also known as the scholar's mate. So the scholar's mate is a opening, also known as a form of checkmate that is going to focus on your attack on black's weak F7 square. So here it goes.

White opens with E4 allowing for the development of both their queen and their bishop. Black's most popular response to E4 is playing E5. Now after the E4-E5 opening white can go in either development with the bishop or with the queen, but remember we're focusing our attack on the weak F7 square.

So in this particular opening I will open up with the bishop to C4. As you can notice, the bishop is directly looking at the weak F7 square putting pressure on that pawn. Black develops the knight, and now is when we activate the queen. As you can see, the bishop is already looking at the F7 square, and now we're going to move the queen to one of two positions that can also look at or attack the F7 square.

The queen can be activated to H5, and as you see the queen is now threatening the F7 square, or we can also activate the queen to F3. In both of these positions the queen and the bishop are both looking at F7. Now if black is not careful and black makes a normal developing move or controlling the center, white can simply play queen takes pawn. And as simple as that the game is over.

So let's look at it once again. The four move checkmate is known as the scholar's mate, and it's the idea of attacking the weak F7 square. This square is considered the weak F7 square because this pawn or F7 is only protected by the opponent's king.

In order to successfully attack the F7 square, we are going activate both our queen and our bishop. We're going to play E4 opening up the queen and the bishop. Black responds to center, and now we can activate our queen. As you can see, we have our queen threatening the weak F7. Black continues with development, and now we need our second piece to attack F7.

Currently, we have the queen threatening F7, and now we are going to activate our bishop which is also looking at the weak F7 square. After black continues with their development, once again the queen takes pawn, checkmate. So everybody that looking to win a chess game very quickly and to beat their mom or dad or friend and be one of the top chess players in their school, the scholar's mate is the way to go.

[TheCykodude]

When i was in middle school (grades 6-8) there was an annual chess tournament, I got to the finals 2 years in a row using this opening. I went to school with a bunch of morons.

[julioalec]

Thank you, this opening got me the win against this kid named Magnus Carlsen. He was a good opponent but wasn’t a match for this opening.

[cinansnickem]

One of my classmates once challenged me to a chess match when he heard that i used to play chess a lot, claiming i can't really be that good at it and that he can easily beat me. So i play this against him and he loses. He then asks for a rematch saying that one didn't count. I then proceed to make the exact same moves, beating him for a second time and to this day i still don't know how he didn't see it coming

[littlebigcomrade]

Watching this while my opponent went for a smoke.

[marconjakecanonoy]

Lol it would be an insult if someone is using that opening against a experienced chess player lol

[BrianVelez]

Hahaha, I used to use this all the time 🤣

[saahilsud]

" Hmm my opponent is coming out strong with the Queen and the Bishop threatening my weakest point that could spell an end to my King. Better move my Knight from the farthest side of the battlefield to influence this game."

[defaltgaming]

I've been playing chess for about 2 days now and I challenged my dad and used this trick thank you.

[sidraket]

I remember figuring this out when i was a kid, i thought i was so smart.

[burniklover]

Xqc should’ve watched this before the match

[wsrufxv]

You are right! I beat my friend and my friend's parents using this trick!!
Oh yeah and my friend is Barky, a dog.

[JY-fjgc]

When I was in the chess club in Junior High, I won a total of 6 tournament games using this. My opponents would always just kinda stare at the board probably thinking to themselves, "did I really just fall for that?" It was actually kind of sad to watch honestly.

[HeartzHugzKissez]

First rule of life: Expect the unexpected.

[ZorLink]

1:00 it's actually best to bring out your queen to h5 first because if you play Bc4, black can just play Nf6, and you won't be able to get checkmate.
Here are some Qh5 variations
1: e4, e5
2: Qh5, g6,
3: Qxe5+ winning the rook
Nf6 is also met by Qxe5+
However before Qxf7# if black plays Nh6, play d3 and take the knight with your c1 bishop next move.

[scottt]

I was 11 when I learned this. I couldn’t wait to teach all my friends how to play chess so I could beat them with this tactic. I’ll be a senior citizen soon and I can’t wait to teach all those old guys down the senior center how to play chess so I can defeat them with this tactic, coming full circle. 🤪🥇

[fade]

Okay so now 1.2 million people know this ....😂😂

[JuggerKnight]

Legend has it that a fleshlight master obliterated his opponent using this strategy

[molinaur]

i tried this on the champ of second year high school it worked lol

[MrCalCal]

Thank you! I lost in my school chess tournament & I'm currently in the loser's bracket. With this I can get my opponents in Checkmate!

[hoobslice]

I’d generally move the queen to H5 instead of F3 because black can protect the pawn your aiming for with their knight if the queen is on F3.