A System Against The Schliemann

I almost made a 'Taking Out The Trash' article about this one, but that series was (is) reserved for openings that you would never see as a main weapon at the GM level (Budapest, Latvian, maybe even the Smith Morra).  The Schliemann, on the other hand, is used by the occasional GM (including our own Melik Khachiyan) as their main response to 1. e4.  That said, it is a pretty odd system and it seems to me like there are at least a couple ways for white to keep some small advantage.

Here's a recent game showing the line (including the novelty Na4!) that I had prepared and planned to use before Caruana beat me to it :).

I've made some notes with other lines black may use should you face this in a tournament.

And Melik, if you read this, I'd love to see a video proving black is okay in these lines, seeing as I wouldn't be opposed to trying the Schliemann out myself!

For now though, I think white is better...

I know there's a lot of other lines worth looking at.  This is one of those systems that it is definitely worth checking out with a computer... partially because there are tactical resources, and partially because checking different lines will make it clearer why white has a very specific plan of provoking c4 and then dropping his queen on c3 early in the middlegame.  

Neat game anyway, maybe not a refutation... but it's the reason I won't touch this with black.

-Matt