How to Win a Chess Game in 4 Moves

Photo by GR Stocks on Unsplash

How to win a chess game in four moves, you ask? There is one variation called the Scholar's Mate. But this only happens under special circumstances. The thing is, your opponent needs to be unaware of this trap for it to work. When I was around 10 years old, I played against an upperclassman at school. I got whipped after the fourth move but that's only because I didn't know what exactly was happening on the board. I was being Scholar's mated. Here's how the Scholar's Mate goes:

One thing to learn from this is that you shouldn't blindly make moves without knowing what your opponent plans on doing. Development for the sake of development is not always a good thing to do. You need to scout out your opponents' motives and attacks. Especially with sneaky attacks such as the Scholar's Mate. However, many have also fallen for this trap. Even if you are able to identify how the Scholar's Mate goes, you need to know how to properly defend. Otherwise, this might happen:

It's one of the most basic tricks in the book, a patzer tactic but only if you don't know it. However, the Scholar's Mate does provide some quick wins if you're playing against beginners in faster time controls. Otherwise, you will find yourself losing tempo by having your queen out early. But if you want to surprise your unknowing opponents with a quick defeat, then you should go and bust out the Scholar's Mate once in a while.