Scholar's mate

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In chess, scholar's mate is the checkmate which occurs after the white moves (in algebraic notation) 1.e4 2.Bc4 3.Qh5 4.Qxf7# or similar. The moves may be played in a different order or with slight variations, but the basic idea—the queen and bishop combining in an attack on f7—is the same. Sometimes scholar's mate is referred to as the four-move checkmate; however, there are other ways to checkmate in four moves.

Unlike fool's mate, which rarely occurs at any level (and with which scholar's mate is sometimes confused), games ending in scholar's mate are quite common amongst beginners. It is easily avoided, however: after 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 Nc6 3.Bc4, for example, scholar's mate may occur after 3...Nf6 4.Qxf7# (giving the position illustrated), but 3...g6 instead, pushing the queen away, is fine for Black (4.Qf3, renewing the Qxf7 threat, is easily met by 4...Nf6). Black can later fianchetto his bishop by developing it to g7. While any victim of Fool's Mate can be rightly so designated, accomplishment of Scholar's Mate does not make one a scholar.

Though the actual mate is almost never seen at any level above beginner, the basic idea underlying it—that the f7 square, being defended only by Black's king, is weak and therefore a good target for attack—motivates a number of chess openings. For example, after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 (the Two Knights Defense), White's most popular move is 4.Ng5, attacking f7, which is awkward for Black to defend. Black sometimes responds in kind with the razor-sharp 4...Bc5!?, the Wilkes-Barre Variation, intending to meet 5.Nxf7 with a blitzkrieg counterattack: 5...Bxf2+ 6.Kxf2 Ne4+.

In some areas, including France, Germany and the Netherlands as well as Spain and Brazil, scholar's mate is known as shepherd's mate. In Italy it is known as barber's mate, in Iran as Napoleon, in Russia as children's mate and in Poland, Denmark and Hungary as shoemaker's mate.