Sick of Attempted Scholar's Mates

I must have played over a dozen games by now (always whenever I'm playing black of course) where my opponent has tried to Scholar Mate me--many times for multiple games in a row with different people.

Am I the only one who has experienced this?

I've come to find it annoying and even insulting. I wouldn't even care so much if it was only every now and then, but it's really happened to me over a DOZEN times, sometimes back-to-back! It's now one of my chess.com pet peeves. Granted, most of us here aren't Grandmasters and we all make mistakes, but I didn't start playing chess yesterday! Only a total, absolute chess noob would ever fall for that. Obviously we're all mostly strangers on this site and don't know each other's playing ability, but how about you give your opponent more credit, instead of trying to score an easy win any non-absolute-beginner can see coming from a mile away?

Just my two cents. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

it's a playable opening for anyone.  And in quick you can get beat by premoving like a moron.

this rarely happens to me. But Scholar's Mate is for babies!

I think that 1. d4 is bad and that none of my opponents should play 1. d4 because it annoys me.

I don't like it when people try to checkmate me either. Can't they just let me checkmate them? That would be a lot better for me.

I do it sometimes (when I play 1. e4 instead of 1. c4) just becaue it enables me to develop pieces, while forcing my opponent to make pawn or knight moves to defend their f-pawn. I don't expect that they will actually let me mate them, I just figure it gains me a tempo or two.

But then I never claimed to be any good or anything.

Hey Apollo XI I am pretty new to chess also .  It drove me nuts getting beaten by the scholars mate left and right.  The Caro Kann helped me a lot as well as giving me some type of plan with black.  it goes 1.e4/c6  then usually players play 2.d4/d5 but some guys trying for the scholars mate throw 2.Bc4 out I like to respond with d5 and it helps stop that attack because if 3.exd5 then cxd5 and the Bishop must fall back or move.  Hope this helps

I play unrated blitz a lot, which is where I'd say it happens the most. My blitz rating is low though because I tried to foolishly play blitz for the first time rated and got slaughtered repeatedly, so I mostly play unrated nowadays. Maybe I "attract" that mate attempt a lot because people underestimate me from my low rating? That just occurred to me.

Flamma: Your answer is the most understandable to me. Whenever I see it coming, it immediately puts me on the defensive to avoid it, which forces me to abandon any opening plans I had. Guess that comes with the territory of playing black, huh.  

Sure, like some have said, anyone can open however they'd like. I don't own the game. And it's obviously not like I dislike it when someone tries to checkmate me (Loomis); it's the objective of the game, after all. I've just seen the same opening way...too...much. To the point where it has just personally annoyed me. Just a silly rant. Nothing serious.

I used to get this all the time on live chess. I haven't seen it yet in slower games. Learn the cure and make them regret playing such bogus, waste-of-time moves like Qh5 so early.

Playing chess may just seem like a whole lot of fun to the kids playing, but they are actually thinking their way to success! (http://www.academicchess.org/about/forkids.shtml)

In bullet/blitz for fun sometimes I will play the scholar's mate setup or (to show you on what level I consider it) 1.e4 2.d3 4.f3 as white.  Just so they relax and think I'm totally clueless, but then I play as best I can after that.

Heh, shows you how seriously some people take bullet/blitz.  Don't know why anyone would abort though, you just get comfortable development.  If you think you're too good to lose to the scholars mate (after avoiding the early mate of course) then you're too cocky.  This isn't a dead lost opening especially at the sub-mater level.

Obviously if I'm the least bit serious about the game I open normally.

i love it! makes me smile every time. let them run their queen around the board while i develop all my pieces, what do i care?

@ wbport - Nice post. I added a few continuations to your miniature with a few blunders by White.

Personally I prefer Qe7 instead of g3 as a defense to the scholar's mate, however, there is really no reason to complain about it, it gives you an advantage. White's dumb early queen moves can make you gain tempo and get ahead in development so its actually good when they try this

Before joining here I was playing through a social networking site and would say that probably 1/3 of my opponents would try this. There's two or three versions of this to watch out for (Qf3, Qh5, and some will add in Nh3)

At that time, I was working though playing with the Robatsch/Pirc defenses. I gotta tell you, it's funny to watch them keep playing through it when it's pretty obvious from black's first move or two that it ain't gonna work... they are persistant... I'll give 'em that... lol...

It's not too hard to play against if you know how to hunt down the queen with your knights and pawns. I've only ever had one game where it was a bit of a challenge but did eventually get through it. I feel your frustration though - a lack of variety like that does become uninteresting.

It is interesting, however, that they all have the same endgame technique too... usually to offer a draw when their queen's been taken out... lol... guess they'd better go get their school money back...

Lots of my opponents - all of which 700 elo - try to scholars mate me. And most of my games go something like this:

Basically they're playing poorly, learn how to use it to your advantage.