Best debut in chess against fool's mate?

Just remember the principle: against 2.Bh5 play 2...Nc6, defending e5, then you kick the queen away with tempo using g6. Fool's mate only works against those who don't develop their knights.

The guys above are right, but I'll add some practical stuff. Scholar's mate only works if you're sitting with an open e-file and not developing your pieces. The main thing is to develop the knights first, they block all these attacks on f7. After 1.e4 e5 just play 2...Nc6 right away, and f7 is already protected by the knight. If your opponent tries 2.Qh5, then 2...Nc6 3.Qxf7 is impossible. Then add 3...g6 and the queen is forced to retreat.

But don't get hung up on just one defense. Better to just teach the kid a habit: develop knights first (Nc6 and Nf6), then bishops, then rooks. The king should be castled to safety before any serious play starts. If these three rules are followed, no 4-move mate will work. Scholar's mate isn't about the opening, it's about lack of development. Once the kid understands why knights need to be developed first, they'll stop falling for it themselves and start catching opponents on the same thing.

The comment above was right about Kc6 and piece development 😊 I'd add that the main thing is really not to memorize openings, but to understand a simple rule: move your knights and bishops early, don't leave f7 undefended, and you won't fall for any back rank tricks. Just play a lot and it'll all become intuitive!

The main mistake is memorizing a specific move against a specific attack. A kid will remember that you need to play Nc6 against Fh5, and then they'll meet someone who plays differently, and fall into a trap again. Even worse is starting to teach special openings like the Sicilian Defense - for a beginner it's just a bunch of numbers they'll quickly forget.

What actually works is building a habit of literally developing knights and bishops in the first 5-6 moves before castling. It doesn't sound flashy, but it becomes a defense against all the childhood checkmates at once. When knights are at home, they block the lines for attacks, they block the f7 square - that's the whole story. Practical lifehack: play a few games where you deliberately only move knights at the start (Nf3, Nc3, then develop bishops), and the kid can play however they want. They'll quickly feel that no attacks can break through this wall, and the brain will remember it better than any diagram.

Once this habit sticks, you can then analyze specific lines against 1.e4. But at the stage where you keep running into fool's mate, the important thing isn't the opening, it's just understanding that piece development isn't boring busywork - it's real protection.