Scandinavian Defense: Letterman Variation (3...Qe6+)

For most Scandi players, the moment of truth comes on move three. After 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3, the eternal question looms: where to place the Queen?

Every Scandi player knows there are three good options:

3...Qa5, the Main Line
3...Qd6, the Gubinsky-Melts Defense (fashionable at the moment)
3...Qd8, the Banker Variation (the oldest recorded chess opening, seriously!)

But are these the only moves to consider? Well, there is 3...Qe5+, the so-called Patzer Variation. Which, to be honest, is not that bad...but that is for another post.

And then there is 3...Qe6+, which David Letterman famously played against Garry Kasparov in their month-long televised correspondence match in 1989.

We might as well call 3...Qe6+ the Letterman Variation since it was only played once or twice in recorded games before 1989. Since then, even World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen has played it...in online Banter Blitz, but still.

Of course, Letterman lost to Kasparov in spectacular fashion, but does that mean the variation is irredeemable? Let's explore the theory (such as it is).

White's main reply to 3...Qe6+ is 4.Be2. An alternative is 4.Qe2, but that allows Black to trade off Queens and get a typical solid Scandi position.

After the far more common 4.Be2, Letterman went 4...Nc6, which looks like a normal developing move but is in fact suboptimal and should be avoided. By the way, the thing that makes the Letterman Variation different from (inferior to?) the Patzer Variation is that Black cannot attack the pinned light-square Bishop with their own light-square Bishop.

Stockfish 14 recommends instead three other moves about equally: 4...Qb6, 4...Nf6, and 4...Qd6. All three transpose to other variations. While Black loses a tempo having moved the Queen around more than usual, White also loses a tempo by having to move the light-square Bishop from its suboptimal placement on e2.

4...Qb6 transposing to the Main Line:

4...Nf6 transposing to the Gubinsky-Melts Defense:

But engines aside, what of the main theory? Well, for that we play 4...Qg6, going after the undefended pawn on g2. Here, White's three main replies are 5.Bf3, 5.Nf3, and 5.g3. The two which defend the g-pawn allow Black to start developing pieces normally and seem to lead to a more or less equal game where White has the same nagging half-pawn advantage present in most variations of the Scandi.

5.Bf3 (top theory move) leads to an okay game for Black:

As does 5.g3:

The more critical move is 5.Nf3, sacrificing the g2 pawn. Theory says to take the pawn, but it is in fact a poisoned pawn. 5...Qxg2 scores 75% (very good for White) and may result in the Black Queen getting trapped if Black is not careful to retreat ASAP. Even then, it just leads to an inferior version of the Banker Variation. As an alternative, Stockfish 14 recommends declining the pawn sacrifice and bailing out of the attack with 5...Qd6.

In sum, the Letterman Variation with 3...Qe6+ is not great, but not terrible either. If White blocks the check with the Queen, then Black has an easy path to equality. If White blocks with the Bishop, then Black can transpose to another variation without losing much time (having forced White to displace the light-square Bishop). Black must be wary, however, of taking the poisoned pawn on g2, as that can quickly lead to a disaster on the scale of Kasparov versus Letterman.

Interested

I play this this as black and have found a couple lines not mentioned here that keep more pressure on... most people tend to protect the pawn with the bishop. Instead of opening my knight or taking the g2 pawn pawn I play bishop to f5 forcing White to play d3. My next move has to be c6 to protect my right side.