The Center Counter Defense

...is my new favorite defense! It is wonderful. The C.C. makes it impossible for white to constrict blacks position, and black's piece mobility is incredible. After exd5 Qxd5 Nc3 Qa5, black just has to get the bishop to f5, move the pawns to c6 and e6, a knight to d7, and a knight to f6, O-O-O, and bishop to d6 at sometime.

I like the gambit variation of centre counter defense, for example see this game played between my friends

I'm happy for you  different people tend to like different positions; personally speaking i don't particularly like B in the (mainline) scandinavian; very often his position is solid but slightly passive. As W i like to play 3.Nf3 and kick the queen away only later with c4 (after Be2,0-0,d4). My feeling is that in the resulting positions B usual setup with c6 and e6 is not very strong, W having a lot of space and easy development.

After 3.Nf3, black would probably play 3...Nxd5, instead of 3...Qxd5

( in 1.e4 e5 2.exd5 Nf6)

He can't: i play 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nf3 ;) I don't know if this is theoretically strong but i score well with it.

Against 2...Nf6 i usually go for the popular 3.Bb5+/4.Be2 line,not allowing most gambit ideas..

c4 isn't so bad in the Nf6 line, in fact you can use it to transpose out of center counter lines and into a french exchange.

I agree.  I think this defense isn't given enough credit.  I know GMs don't use it, and I'm not sure why (maybe not fighting enough?)  but at the amateur level it seems to be a strong equalizing weapon if you know the lines well.

As far as i know it's not totally unseen even at GM level. I think my relative succes against it is mainly due to my opponents not knowing theory; a lot of people play the scandinavian as a way to get a playable position with the same setup against everything W plays. With some theory no doubt they would pose me serious problems.

Well I always prefer scandinavian much more than 1.e4 e5 as black

I'm surprised that many impugn the scandinavian for being passive, when in fact the mobility of the minor pieces makes the scandinavian dangerous and active!

I my view B isn't particularly mobile or aggressive, and also committed to a rather static pawn structure but i might easily be wrong. After all i have bizzarre opening tastes, my favourite defense is 1.e4 Nf6 

I still find 2. exd5 Qxd5 my favourite

bresando you cant play 3.Nf3, after 3...Bg4 you have some problems

3...Bg4 4.Be2 and where's the problem? W scores extremely well from here on chess365 database, the g4 bishop looks misplaced to me.

3.Nf3 is not my invention ;) it has been played in hundreds of master games. I guess it's not as good as Nc3 but still respertable.

First of all, I guess that after 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nf3 Bg4 4.Be2 is the position still neutral, but I really don't like the black queen in the middle ( that's why I play 2...Nf6). Also, although I think 365chess is good database, it doesn't catch all the moves and games it should in certain openings, and because of that, especially when the number of games in database isn't very high for some specific variation, the white wins/draw/black wins statistics isn't really accurate. That's my opinion

Of course chess365 is just a little free database with several missing lines. I only used it as an example. My impression is that after 3...Bg4 4.Be2 white is slightly better, but this impression derives from my games in the line, not from statistics. I also like to play W against 2...Nf6, but i guess it's largely a matter of tastes. B of course has a playable game.

uhohspaghettio, committing mistakes is quite common you know? We have already discussed this in the past...we're having a polite discussion here, no reason to insult the others.

Well, as you said, bresando, different people tend to like different positions, but we'll probably both agree that scandinavian is interesting opening worth to be played, although the main line is a bit disadvantageous for B 

 I absolutely agree  And i'm not even sure if the main line is so bad for B.

What about a game? I would really like to play against a strong prepared 1...d5 player. Unrated if you want, since it is intended only as a friendly game.

uhohspaghettio,yes,"perhaps Bg4 gives you problems" would have been a friendlyer formulation. On the other hand you could have said "The line is playable and W has no problems after Bg4" and instead...answering fire with fire is usually not considered a clever policy.

I absolutely agree, from your game challenge to your comment for uhohspaghettio.

I dislike Scandi cuz queen out too early