The Scotch opening is a chess opening that fits in very well with the Rules for the opening from the previous series of chess lessons.

In short:

• Get a pawn in the centre
• Develop your minor pieces
• Move your King to safety

In the Scotch game it is not only White’s intention to accomplish these goals, but also to prevent Black doing the same. The purpose of the game is to reach an advantageous imbalance.

As you can see, the Scotch game is a very nice chess opening. It is an open game and there are a lot of possibilities for tactical manoeuvres.

In the next chess lesson we will learn why a pinned piece can not be counted as a defender, but if you first want to study another opening the Italian Game may be a nice lesson.