Recent Studies: How to Handle the Scandinavian

Good time of day to you my dear chess friends,

     I still need to make a post for the 2014 World Open which took place on the 4th of July Weekend in Arlington, VA, where I finished with  6/9 (quite disappointing). In the meantime, here is an update on how my training is progressing. I have another two months or so until the Midwest Class tournament, where I will be competing in the Class A event (for what will hopefully be the last time).

     This time, I will be sharing some opening preparation that I just did on the Scandinavian defense, thanks in good part to a lecture given by GM B Smith that is available (at least for part 1 of the series) on youtube. I also did some analysis of my own using chessgame.com's database and with some aid from Rybka. There are lots of fascinating variations in what follows. I don't really feel like I'm giving away a competitive edge by sharing this as it should for the most part be public knowledge anyway (and because I have not yet decided if I'm even going to play these lines for white; the fun thing about the Scandinvian is that white has many options to get a small advantage after 2...Qxd5).