Scholar’s Mate chess trap 4-move checkmate

Scholar’s Mate is a 4-move checkmate trap 1. e4 e5 2. Qh5 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6?? 4. Qxf7#. Qh5+Bc4 can be played in any order, or with a Qf3+Bc4 variation. In each case, Queen and Bishop combine in a brute-force mating attack on f7. One simple way to avoid Qh5/Qf3 + Bc4 attacks on f7, is to adopt the French Defence. This begins 1.e4 e6, where e6 blunts the impact of Bc4 and makes Qh5/Qf3 less potent.