If they move their Queen to Qh4 or or their Bishop to Bc5, that’s a massive red flag for you and you should defend against this mate before doing anything else. So what do you do if your opponent tries this on you? The good thing is you immediately know if your opponent is going for this pattern. It attacks the Queen but so what? Black then delivers mate with Qf2#. White playing Nf3 doesn’t defend anything. It would have still been bad for White, but this mate wouldn’t of occurred. This is an example of Scholar’s mate given by Black. Checkmate is inevitable and even if it wasn’t half your pieces get gobbled up by the Queen. The Queen then just takes the e4 pawn putting the King in check, then taking the Rook in the corner. A common mistake that’s made in response to Qh5 is pushing the pawn to g6. White simply dominates Black for a couple additional moves before giving mate.
![four move checkmate four move checkmate](https://chessdailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Mate-in-4-a.jpg)
However the same principle applies with the mate given with the Queen and Bishop. This mate happens with higher rated players as well, although rare.
![four move checkmate four move checkmate](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-Lr9v1TNekQ/maxresdefault.jpg)
White, played by Michael, successfully performs Scholar’s Mate. This is a game that took place in 1952 between Michael Meyer and Douglas Newcomb.
FOUR MOVE CHECKMATE HOW TO
Learning how to punish your opponent for bringing out their Queen early attempting early Queen attacks, even the Wayward Queen Attack, is important to learn so you can move past that phase, but that’s a different subject. William Steele said when he started playing, over 90% of his opponents tried this mate, if it failed they would just continue trying to attack with the Queen.
![four move checkmate four move checkmate](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/S9tVbFpCuss/maxresdefault.jpg)
Both are incredibly quick checkmates and if you’re new, you simply haven’t learned what to do to prevent this mate. Most players below 700 or so play either the Fool’s Mate or the Scholar’s Mate. This mate has most likely happened to you as a lower rated player, especially if you play on. This was the first chess term and checkmate pattern seen in the Netflix series, The Queen Gambit. If you’re a beginner chess player, you’ve likely been a victim of the dreaded four-move checkmate pattern known as the Scholar’s mate. It’s one of the fastest checkmate patterns in the game of Chess. The Scholar’s mate is given with a Queen and a Bishop.