The Scholar's mate from the Queen's gambit

- Written by puzzlemaster on Nov. 7, 2020
- board analysis
If you haven't followed along the recent chatter on Twitter, everyone's been talking about Netflix's latest show, the Queen's Gambit.
In episode 1 a young Beth Harman plays her first chess game with Mr Shaibel, the janitor of the orphanage ,who would become her first mentor. In three moves he serves her a checkmate in what will be revealed to be the Scholar's mate. In French, it is called "le coup du berger".
What is thescholar's mate? It is a checkmate performed in 4 moves with white's bishop protecting the queen as she attacks black's king.

What do you do if someone attempts this in your game? Check out this study to see possible defense lines.