Scholar's mate Scholar's mate In chess, Scholar's Mate is the checkmate achieved by the following moves, or similar: The same mating pattern may be reached by various move orders. For example, White might play 2.Qh5, or Black might play 2...Bc5. In all variations, the basic idea is the same: the queen and bishop combine in a simple mating attack on f7 (or f2 if Black is performing the mate). Scholar's Mate is sometimes referred to as the "Four-Move Checkmate", although there are other ways to checkmate in four moves. Unlike Fool's Mate, which rarely occurs at any level, games ending in Scholar's
Chess in the arts Poul Anderson's short story "Immortal Game", inspired by the 1851 game played by Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky (which also appears in the film "Blade Runner"); or Waldemar Łysiak's "Szachista" (), centered on a game played between Napoleon Bonaparte and The Turk. The game Frank Poole versus HAL 9000 from the film "" is also based on an actual match, albeit not widely known. Other artists drawn their inspirations from the life of players. Vladimir Nabokov wrote "The Defense" after learning about Curt von Bardeleben, while the musical "Chess" was loosely based on the life of Bobby Fischer. Some authors