What is a Scholar’s Mate in Chess?

The Scholar’s Mate in Chess is a mating pattern and this particular checkmate can be reached by various move orders. It basically goes like this.

1.e4 e5 White moves

2.Bc4 Nc6 White moves

3.Qh5 Nf6?? White moves

4,Qxf++ checkmate

Only a weak chess player will fall for that. The early queen move is wrong because the queen will normally gets chased around by the opponent’s pieces. This means Black develops his pieces but White does not because he has to retreat with the queen all the time. This costs development time. In the end Black has more pieces developed than White and Black equalizes or gets the better game.