Final position — White delivers mate
Scholar's mate
White wins in 4 moves by checkmate. (Traps - Scholar’s mate - C20 - https://lichess.org/@/MaxMalkov)
The moves
| 1. | e4 | e5 |
| 2. | Qh5 | Nc6 |
| 3. | Bc4 | Nf6 |
| 4. | Qxf7# |
How the Scholar's mate works
The Scholar's mate is a classic chess opening trap arising from the King's pawn game. In this line White delivers checkmate on move 4, punishing a natural-looking but losing idea from Black.
The full sequence runs 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Qxf7#. Each move looks reasonable, which is exactly why the trap is so effective over the board — Black walks into it while trying to play "normal" developing moves.
This pattern is well known from master and correspondence play (Traps - Scholar’s mate - C20 - https://lichess.org/@/MaxMalkov). Recognising it early lets you either spring it as White or sidestep it as Black.
Practice this trap move-by-move
Open the Scholar's mate in the Trapsterapp to play it out on a live board, drill it in practice mode, and learn how to avoid it when it's set for you — along with the full library of chess traps and gambits, fully offline.