Tree path 6 levels King's Pawn Game › King's Knight Opening › Normal Variation › Scotch Game › Scotch Game › Scotch Game
- Chess Codex
- King's Pawn Game C20
- King's Knight Opening C40
- Normal Variation C44
- Scotch Game C44
- Scotch Game C44
- Scotch Game C45 you are here
Scotch Game
Overview
Scotch Game is a variation within the Open Games family, indexed as ECO C45.
The Open Games group covers open games — classical 1.e4 e5 openings where both sides contest the centre directly with pawns.
It is reached after 7 plies of play, with the move sequence 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4.
It is a variation of Scotch Game, which itself descends from the root opening King's Pawn Game.
It branches into 5 notable variations — Classical Variation, Ghulam-Kassim Variation, Malaniuk Variation, and others.
In total, the branch covers 27 sub-variations across all depths.
Step through the moves on the interactive board below, review the live Lichess statistics, or play this position against Stockfish at one of six difficulty levels.
- ECO code
- C45
- Group
- Open Games (C)
- Plies
- 7
- Parent
- Scotch Game
- Direct variations
- 5
- Total in subtree
- 27
This overview is generated automatically from the opening's metadata. Know this line well? Write a description — submissions are reviewed before publishing.
Statistics from Lichess
25,538,213 games · White 50.9% / Draw 5.3% / Black 43.8%
| Moves | Games | W / D / B |
|---|---|---|
| Nxd4 | 8,315,153 | |
| Bc5 | 7,245,761 | |
| Nf6 | 3,808,907 | |
| d6 | 1,525,499 | |
| Qf6 | 1,520,691 | |
| Ne5 | 720,452 | |
| Qh4 | 715,546 | |
| Nge7 | 547,902 |
Source: Lichess Opening Explorer · cached 2026-09-26 01:39:54
Write a description
Markdown supported (headings ###, bold, lists, links).
Submissions are reviewed before publishing.
Variations (5)
Show all 27 sub-variations (full subtree)
- C45 Classical Variation 8-ply
- C45 Ghulam-Kassim Variation 11-ply
- C45 Malaniuk Variation 8-ply
- C45 Schmidt Variation 8-ply
- C45 Steinitz Variation 8-ply
- C45 Scotch Game: Alekhine Gambit 9-ply
- C45 Scotch Game: Blumenfeld Attack 11-ply
- C45 Scotch Game: Braune Variation 9-ply
- C45 Blackburne Attack 13-ply
- C45 Intermezzo Variation 10-ply
- C45 Millennium Variation 12-ply
- C45 Scotch Game: Fraser Variation 9-ply
- C45 Scotch Game: Horwitz Attack 9-ply
- C45 Scotch Game: Meitner Variation 13-ply
- C45 Scotch Game: Mieses Variation 11-ply
- C45 Scotch Game: Paulsen Attack 13-ply
- C45 Scotch Game: Paulsen Variation 9-ply
- C45 Scotch Game: Potter Variation 9-ply
- C45 Scotch Game: Steinitz Variation 9-ply
- C45 Scotch Game: Tartakower Variation 11-ply
- C45 Scotch Game 11-ply
- C45 Scotch Game: Gottschall Variation 24-ply
- C45 Scotch Game: Modern Defense 10-ply
- C45 Scotch Game: Paulsen, Gunsberg Defense 14-ply
- C45 Scotch Game: Romanishin Variation 10-ply
- C45 Horwitz Attack, Blackburne Variation 17-ply
- C45 Rosenthal Variation 18-ply