Q&A for How to Do Scholar's Mate in Chess

It depends on who you are playing against. If you go for Scholar's Mate against someone who knows how to defend against it, you’ll only be putting yourself in a worse position. This is because when you play Scholar's Mate, you have to develop your queen straightaway, which leaves her open for attack.

A beginner should develop the habit of carefully considering every piece on the board before making a move. Each of your pieces should be viewed for its opportunities to help you, and each of your opponent's pieces should be viewed for its opportunities to hurt you. Don't be in a hurry to make a move. Normal chess is not intended to be a fast game.

Chess is a difficult and complicated game. Never feel bad if you make a mistake. Every player makes them.

No, because white's bishop is protecting the queen as she attacks the king.

You are allowed to make only legal moves. If you accidentally make an illegal move and don't realize it, it's up to your opponent to point it out. If you both fail to recognize the illegal move, you can continue the game to its conclusion, you can "backtrack" to the positions you were in before the illegal move, or you can decide to stop the game as soon as you realize an illegal move has been made.

It only happens sometimes. If the opponent blocks it, just play a different strategy.

It doesn't work every time. Don't worry about it, try another move, and enjoy playing.

A sneakier way is to move your queen to f3 instead of going all the way to the edge. You still threaten the same square, but it is sneakier. Just know that no matter what you do, some people will notice it and end your attempt with one move, putting you into a worse position.

No, there's no such thing as "stealing" in chess.

Go against the computer at a weaker level and hope it works. It might not, but that's really the only thing you can try at first, as the computer may outsmart you. With practice, you can choose to increase the level of the computer to challenge yourself.

Extremely often. I block it a lot myself, and have seen many players fail to use it.

If they do that, then the mate won't work. Then you could develop your pieces and mount an attack at the castled king.

You could do Nf6 after your first move. That would attack the Queen if she tries to go ahead with the mate.

Yes, a pawn can capture any piece that is in an adjacent, diagonally-forward square.