The Modernized Scotch Game

Descripción

The Scotch was one of the first modern openings to appear in tournament practice. The nature of the

Scotch fitted perfectly into the 19th century era of Romantic chess – the opening’s emphasis on opening

lines, fast development, rapid centralisation and, most importantly, fast attacking chances, meshed

seamlessly with the style of the day. In a stylistic sense the Scotch very much resembles Open Sicilian

positions.

 

In spite of its long history however, for most of its life the Scotch did not enjoy great popularity. It was a

recognized answer to 1… e5, for sure, but it never seriously challenged the Ruy Lopez as the most

“objective” way to fight for an opening advantage. The general opinion was that Black had enough

resources to achieve equality. The turning point for the fortunes of the Scotch was the world title

matchbetween Kasparov and Karpov in 1990, the first time that the opening had been tested at such an

elite level. Unsurprisingly, Kasparov’s decision to employ this old opening meant that its appearances in

tournaments soared. The popularity of the Scotch generated by this match remains today, and I would

say it is perhaps more popular than ever before. That begs the obvious question – why? Well, due to the

nature of the positions that tend to arise it is ideal for engine analysis, and so it lends itself perfectly to

the tools of the current day. It is a nice paradox that the Romantic foundations of this opening merge so

well with the computerized modern era. Credit can mostly be given to Kasparov for reviving this old

opening, but there are many others who have contributed to exploring new ideas and forging new paths.

Sample pages