Scandinavia Gambit

It is just a fine opening. White may get a tempo, but nothing more. So it is not a gambit. It's main advantage is that it is rare so Black (who will play the opening in many games) will probably know the positions better than White (who will meet it rarely). That could easily prove to be worth a tempo. 

play 2...Nf6, the marshall. it's more aggressive and DOESN'T waste that "please chase my queen!" tempo. i started out playing that line, but a 2200 told me to play the marshall, and as an Nf3/Bc4 (Nf3/Bc5) zealot, it's a lot better at attacking one's opponent's f pawn.

I'm hating the scandinavian myself because of that annoying 2.e5 line that takes EITHER line "out of book" it prevents that Nf6 I crave so much.

nowadays in Qxd5, there are at least 3 queen retreats including the "keep chasing my queen right back where she started" Qa5 line. there's going straight back to d8 which always seemed better to me, even before people started playing it, and to me, Qd7 looks best as the queen has active diagonals

The best response to Nc3 is Qe6check and if white plays Be2 then Qg6 attack the g2 pawn , continue harassing and attacking white player with your queen until he succumbs to your pulverizing blows

The only White players who are not familiar with this are noobs. Anyone who has been around a while or has attained some advancement in rating is bound to have come across the opening quite a bit and likely even has a response ready. Many (such as myself) have played it as Black.

It's kind of a lame opening. You can play it if you like. Don't expect much and you may be pleasantly surprised in those games where your opponent doesn't squash you.

The strength is that you get to choose the pawn structure, or at least get more often the classical Caro Kann structure.

The minus is the tempi you pay, and that inherently there is no reason to chase the classical C-K structure over other structures that e.g. pop up in C-K games.

I believe the ..Qd6 line is fashionable but tbh the older ..Qa5 or ..Qd8 should be fine as well

It's not that i think white players don't know a respons to 1. ...d5, but I do think they are less prepared for the middle game positions that arise. That is different of course if you play the scandi yourself and you face it as white. And the structures often resemble Caro-Kann, Semi Slav and French positions. So of course I dont think my white opponent is clueless. I just think experience matters. 

@2

"White may get a tempo"
++ White does not even get a tempo. White lost a tempo  with 2 exd5.
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While the example does show the same position with one move less, I don't get why in the first game, White played Ne4 instead of developing a piece and having 2 pieces to 0 in the game.

oh i hate it when the scandinavian gambit proper 

is called the pavnov transfer!

i'm back to it again, for now, having never clicked with the new jack icelandic

I used to play this stuff years ago until some jokers started messing with me by taking my Panov to the Icelandic Gambit by 3...e6

yeah, i started playing the icelandic too, but it never really clicked with me the same way the more basic 3...c6 does. these days, it still scores a little better than the icelandic. never switched to the portugese either outside a few games

Yes, White develops his Nc3 with tempo, attacking Black's queen.

However, Nc3 blocks the c2 pawn, which is not exactly ideal for white.

White generally wants his c-pawn to be involved in the opening phase of the game (either on the modest c3 square, or the more aggressive c4 square).

But the knight on c3 prevents either of these.

As a result, white will have to either play the opening/middlegame "without" his c-pawn, thus allowing black to clamp down on the d5 square (with pawns on c6 and e6). For example:

Or, white will need to "give the tempo back" by moving his c3 knight a second time, to free up the c-pawn.

Sometimes, white breaks the pin on the knight with his bishop on d2, threatening to reveal an attack on the queen. However, again ... the bishop is not ideally placed on d2. If black retreats the queen to c7, then the white bishop is now oddly placed on d2 ... white will have to spend another tempo moving it to a better square at some point ...

And on and on it goes, both players maneuvering and "trading tempi" back and forth, as they argue their own ideas ...

Why not try 2... f6? gambitting yet another pawn away. If they take, you take back with the knight up a tempo and a half as well as a center pawn and the f-file for your rook later on. If they don't and play d4/f4, takes takes Nc6 and play from there.

I still play the (apparently) inferior 3. Nf3 against the Mieses-Kotrc or 3. d4 against the Modern and try for the same setup (d4 c4 Nc3 Nf3 and then develop the bishops wherever they make the most sense)

White does not look more developed to me and black has a more solid pawn structure.  

[quote]I used to play this stuff years ago until some jokers started messing with me by taking my Panov to the Icelandic Gambit by 3...e6[/quote]

that happened around the late 90s to early 00s, along the same time that the portugese became popular and my orange scandinavian opening book didn't feel it was necessary to cover the STILL annoying to me advance variation... essentially "figure it out, you'll be fine"

ugh! grandmasters and their theory that's only for playing other grandmasters.

55% wins in the scandinavian gambit... just 33% in the Icelandic. the scandinavian gambit is more intuitive. the icelandic transposes to the monte carlo french BTW, but I gave up on playing that because when frenchies see a gambit, they run away crying