Opening Analysis - The Scandinavian

Hi guys welcome back to another blog of mine..Last blog we were looking at 'The French Defense' plz go check it out. Today we are gonna be analyzing the Scandinavian.

                                                        (Fig 1)
 The Scandinavian is a less commonly played opening in the GM and Super GM sphere of play. Though its very uncommon at that level, chess players at every level except the super GM and GM level play this opening a lot. Its known for its aggressive style of play. Lets go through some main lines. 

Here white has an option to take the pawn on d5 (refer Fig1) which is the main line. Some rare lines which are transformative lines (Transform into the same or other openings) like 2. e5 (French) and 2. Nc3 (a extract from the veena)

Lets move on to the main line. 2. exd5 :

                                                                       (Fig 2)

Here the most common lines for black are 2.... Nf6 and 2.... Qxd5 (Refer Fig 2) but before we get into that lets look at an aggressive sideline which is also commonly played on every level except GM and Super GM level. 

The move 2.. c6 for black (Refer Fig 2) is a line where black gives up a pawn for development. Its a wild game where black has the developmental advantage while white has an extra pawn. Its a very exciting line to play try it out.

Now coming back to the main lines we'll review both of these moves a little deeper -

2... Qxd5 - 

                                                      (Fig 3)

Here white has 2 lines. 3. Nc3 and 3. d4 both transforming into each other (Refer Fig 3). So lets go into 3. Nc3 as its more forcing and probably better than 3.d4 first then Nc3

                                                           (Fig 4)

Here black has 3 options ( Refer Fig 4) which are all commonly played. 3... Qa5 , 3.. Qd6 and 3... Qd8 . Qd8 is probably the last option u want to play because now u just gave white an extra 'tempo' to develop his knight while attacking your queen. Qd6 just puts your queen in the fire line of more tempo's but in the middle game the position might be of use to you. The best move according to most books and myself is Qa5. It puts the queen out of the firing line for sometime and when needed black can play c6 and Qc7 to escape from white's Bd2 ideas. 

Now lets look at general Ideas for both sides 

White - White here wants to castle , go Ne5 to gain control of the center , Bd2 to chase the queen and try to go f4 f5 to break through blacks defenses

Black -   Black here wants to castle , play c6 and Qc7 , Go Bg4 and keep the pin on the knight , Keep some control of the center and fight for equality. 

So lets get into the other main line 2. Nf6

                                                     (Fig 5)

Here (Fig 5)  white can no longer cling on the pawn. Nf6 is a less exciting but a very solid line. White here normally plays 3. Nc3 and let black take the pawn. From there on its a solid game where both sides are trying to out play each other or are trying to muster up an attack here. White has a slight advantage but the position is very solid for black.

Thanks for reading this blog and I hope ya liked it.

Yours Bloggerly

@ananthramdas