Scotch Game: 3...Bb4+ – A Dangerous Check

The check itself looks natural — you attack the knight and force White to block with 4.c3. But that c-pawn push, normally a concession, is actually excellent for White here. It prepares d4-d5, kicking your knight and grabbing even more space. Meanwhile, you have moved your bishop twice before developing your kingside, and you have no pawns in the centre beyond e5. The result is a position where White already has a near-winning advantage (+1.58). The statistics confirm this is no small edge: across over half a million Lichess games at this exact position, White wins 58.1% of the time, while Black wins only 38.5%. Draws are rare at 3.4%. If you play the Scotch and meet 3...Bb4+, you are fighting an uphill battle from move 4.

The engine's best move in this position is Bd6 — retreating the bishop a second time. It sounds painful, and it is. But every alternative is worse. After 4...Bd6, White's best continuation is Bd3 Nf6 O-O, building a classical centre with quick castling. You are worse, but you still have a playable game if you defend carefully. Compare that to the alternatives: 4...Ba5 (the most popular move in the database with 337,280 games) loses about 0.8 pawns — it is an inaccuracy that makes White's job even easier. The other common replies are outright mistakes. 4...exd4 loses roughly 2.1 pawns, and 4...Nxd4 is the worst of all, losing about 2.3 pawns. Both are far from equal and hand White a crushing advantage.

It is tempting to grab the pawn with 4...exd4 or to snatch it with the knight via 4...Nxd4. The database shows these are played thousands of times, but the results are brutal. After 4...exd4, White scores 65.4%, and after 4...Nxd4, White scores an astonishing 72.4%. On top of that, 4...Bf8 (retreating all the way back) gives White a 71.4% score. All of these are worse than simply admitting your mistake with 4...Bd6. In this opening, patience beats aggression. The centre is not yours to grab — White's c3 has already solidified it, and any capture just opens lines for White's pieces while your own development lags.

Let's break down the numbers for the most-played replies so you can see the pattern. The move 4...Ba5 appears in 337,280 games (62.3% of all games) with White scoring 56.6% — not terrible for White, but still a clear plus for them. The engine calls it an inaccuracy. Move to 4...Bd6 (148,991 games, 27.5% of games), and White scores 58.0%. Even though White's winning percentage is higher here than against Ba5, Bd6 is the engine's top pick because it minimises the positional damage. The scoring difference is small because Black players often handle Ba5 poorly afterward. For you, the lesson is clear: Bd6 is the principled retreat that keeps the game going. The other moves (exd4 at 65.4% for White, Nxd4 at 72.4%, Bf8 at 71.4%) are not just statistically worse — they are objectively losing.