How to Beat the Skandi?

I hate playing White against the Scandinavian Defense (1.e4 d5).  Can anyone share their favorite lines against either the 2...Qxd5 or 2...Nf6 lines?  Many thanks!

what reti posted the transposition to the blackmar diemer gambit (usually d4 d5 e4) is a fun way of meeting it, however.to play well at a decent level you must know a lot of lines, since accurate play is needed to gain compensation for the pawn.

1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.b4!? Qxb4 5.Rb1 Qd6(best, for other moves see my thread on the topic) leads to interesting play where White has compensation for the pawn, while 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 c6 6.Bc4 Bg4 7.h3 Bh5 8.g4 Bg6 9.Ne5 is a nice way to get an advantage.

3...Qd6 is well enough met by developing your pieces, including g2-g3 and Bc1-f4.

2...Nf6 3.c4 c6 (3...e6? is a blunder, after 4.dxe6 Black doesn't have enough for the pawn) 4.d4! cxd5 5.Nc3 is a Panov-Botvinnik which is fun to play for White.

1. e4? d5?? 2. d4??! e6!! 0-1

After 1. e4  d5  2. exd5  Qxd5  3. Nc3  Qa5  4. d4  Nf6 [the correct move]

5. Nf3  c6  6. Ne5   Be6 is the correct idea.  In the world championship match mentioned Black actually had an opening advantage and made mistakes later on to lose to Kasparov.

Many of the lines in the video are nullified by 6. ... Be6

After  4. d4  Nf6 5. Nf3  c6  6. Bc4  then Bg4 is a mistake.  Black should

play 6. ... Bf5

unsecure?

so hes transposed into the french defense, which as white is something he will practice regularly, while the scandinavian player probably doesnt get much practice with the french from the black side(already playing 1..d5 against 1.e4).

Its a moral victory or white, same goes or 2.c6 

What? Everyone knows the French is a forced win for black.

Thanks for the feedback, this is a great community.  Helpful stuff.  I'm not sure about the Bongcloud, though.  :)

Here's a link about the "busting" of the 2.Qd5 line.  What do you think?

http://meralcochess.blogspot.com/2008/12/chess-piece-scandinavian-secrets.html

You may think that's funny, but I've had this position as black at least a dozen times online and at least once at the chess club

.....lmao

The link busting the 2. ...Qxd5 line is flawed as it does not give the best moves for Black.  after 3. Nc3  Qa5  4. d4  Black should not play c6

instead Nf6 is the correct move.  In general Black should play c6 as a response to White's Bd2. 

So in the line given if 3. Nc3  Qa5  4. d4  Nf6  5. Bc4 then Bg4 changes the whole game.

ahh the bobby kasparov defense

wafflemaster, I will bet you for every time you've had 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.b3?? I've had 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qc6?? 

So far all the "refutations" to the Center Counter  1.e4  d5  2. exd5  Qxd5 have been refuted. 

Often when someone says he has a refutation to an established opening he delibertly gives bad moves and then "refutes" the bad moves. 

Yes, White can do better by playing Black's moves for him with 11...Be7!? or 10...Bg4! but maybe Black can also improve on White's play.

I think Bg4 was analyzed in an earlier post link, from the game Shirov-Salov which has been played many more times with White scoring well over 70%. White continues 11.d5 Bxf3 12.gxf3 cxd5 13.Bxd5 Nd7 14.O-O-O O-O-O (14...Ba3 gives nothing after 15.c3) 15.Be4 where I think we can agree that White is somewhat better?

10...Nd7 is the main line, and 11...Be7!? was tried in the game Howell-Papaioannou from the European Teams in 2011. Howell continued 12.h3 but interesting was 12.Bg5!? Qg6 13.Bxe7 Kxe7 where White should have a very slightly better endgame I think, but I'm not a titled player so I could just be totally wrong here. Certainly after 12.h3 h5, 13.Bg5 should be a good try? Actually this endgame was played back in 2009 by a couple of Experts in Denmark, Hansen-De Blecourt. White won but at this level the result says nothing of the opening. That game's move-order was 10...Nd7 11.Bg5!? Qg6 12.O-O-O Be7 13.Bxe7 Kxe7 14.h3 h5.

pfren, what are your thoughts on these lines?

9...gxf6 is probably most accurate if this analysis bears out and is the most commonly played move

9. ... gxf6 is imperative

I can only imagine you are referring to where they cover Prie's analysis in CBM 106? After his recommended 15...Qe5 16.Bc3 Qc7 17.Kb1 (or 16.Kb1 Qc7 17.Bc3) 17...f6, 18.Rhg1 has scored 100% for White in three games (one with Prie himself playing the black pieces and two with IM John Bartholomew, a player I am quite familiar with who lives a few hours away from me) and looks like White has quite a nice position. The games all continued 18...Nc5 19.Rxd8 Kxd8 20.Bd4 where both 20...Bd6(both Bartholomew games) and 20...Kc8 have been tried. The Prie game continued 21.Qc4 Qxh2?? and White was winning already after 22.Rd1. An improvement could be 21...a6 but even there White looks to be better e.g. 22.Rd1 Kb8 23.c3 Be7 24.Bc2 with the threat of 25.b4. Any holes in my analysis you might be able to point out would be greatly appreciated since I play this line as White.

And after 20...Bd6, the line which was played in both games 21.Bxc5 Bxc5 22.Qc4 looks to be drawish to me, while certainly Black has no chance to win the game I also don't see why he should lose. I don't know if White has real chances to win in this line despite the 100% score. It seems at some point White will be forced to capture on c5 leading to some form of endgame with opposite colored Bishops. Maybe 21.f4!? is an idea trying to preserve the light-squared bishop?