Fighting the Scandinavian

The Scandinavian Defense is unusual, and, to many players, it feels wrong. Black brings his queen out early and gets away with it.

Playing exd5 seems like the only option, but there is another way!

This move might seem silly or odd at first, but it has deep strategic points. There are two critical responses: d4 and dxe4.

Here is a game in the d4 line annotated by Eric Schiller.

Here is a game played by Nakamura in the d4 line. The annotations are mine.

Here are some lines in the dxe4 variation.