Talk:Scholar's mate
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in my area, we always called the sequence "Blitzkrieg" after the lightning-fast german war tactics. i happen to think it's a pretty suitable name, but i wondered if anybody else has heard that name for it?
Xiong Chiamiov 22:39, 21 May 2006 (UTC)
- I've actually heard it called the "terrorist attack;" Bruce Pandolfini referred to it thus in the opening tutorials for the Chessmaster PC games. I have no better source, unfortunately. Darthmix 23:15, 6 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Black is the Scholar
Unfortunately in this page's current version of the mate, Black's motivation is less clear than this example: 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Qh5 and Black, seeing that his e-pawn is attacked, defends it with 3...Nc6 only to lose to 4.Qxf7#. I think this is why the line is called "Scholar's mate": It is not White, but rather Black who is the Scholar, who sees and responds to a threat but still fails, in contrast to the Fool who has no clue at all. --Wfaxon 07:07, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
- True enough. I did a double-take when I read the bit about 3. ...g6 being "fine for Black," because I've always seen 2. ...Bc5, and in that line 3. ...g6 fails badly: White can respond 4. Qxe5+, winning the rook. Another "scholarly" response for Black in this line is 3. ...Nf6, which sensibly attacks the queen but misses the checkmate threat. (Black's best response is to block both threats with 3. ...Qe7, then chase away White's queen at his leisure.) ~ CZeke 22:49, 1 May 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Animation
I removed the animation because it was superfluous. W/o it, the entry looks more tidy.
I think the animation is good because it shows a step-by-step process that eases understanding of the concept. I'm gonna replace the current image w/ the animation to make both of us happy. --Kevin (TALK) 00:26, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
- The animation is good, please keep. Nicolasdz 15:15, 11 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Blitzkrieg
The article stated in the first line that scholar's mate was "widely known" as blitzkrieg. I have moved this to the end of the article with the other alternative names. I've certainly never heard it called blitzkrieg (this discussion shows I'm not alone), and the Oxford Companion to Chess, for example, doesn't give it as an alternative name (it actually gives blitzkrieg as an alternative name for progressive chess). I think it's fine to list it in the article (it is referenced, after all), but putting it in the lead-in paragraph and making out that it's as widely used a term as "scholar's mate" itself seems to me rather misleading (I have similar doubts about "four move checkmate" to be honest, but at least that's not in the very first sentence). --Camembert 13:38, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
- We've gone 'round this issue before. I think it's utter bullocks, but people involved with scholastic chess assure us that this is established usage in youth chess. I find the source weak and unconvincing. Anyone can write a book on anything, and Harvey Kidder is a chess writer totally unknown to me. If Hooper, Whyld, Reinfeld, Horowitz, Chernev, Burgess, Winter, Golombek, Kasparov, etc. would confirm it, I'd be OK with it, but corroberation of this usage is very hard to find. AFAIK, the listed book is the only reference the blitzkriegers can come up with. I'm disappointed to see Wikipedia promote what I consider to be a completely bogus usage, but there it is. Thanks for at least moving it out of the lede. (Why would "blitzkrieg" be a popular term among youth today anyway? That term had currency around WW II and is almost never used anymore.) Quale 15:32, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
