Scandinavian Defence Move order Question.
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Jan 27, 2025
0
#2
I’m starting to use the Scandinavian but found myself in trouble with incorrect development. NF3 seems a less common move after Qxd5 but allows early castling, I find white trying to chase the queen puts white in unfavourable positions. I don’t see many reasons to move the queen until risk of/under threat, better to just develop and react to whites pawn development until a weakness is shown at which point the queen is already active. I’m still exploring traps and sequences but without development the queen can’t do much unless white blunders.
4 days ago
0
#3
Move orders can vary a bit. A point to remember is that the black Q will not remain on d5 for long, so whether it moves to a safer square of its own accord as time allows or whether it is "forced" back to wherever it was going to go anyway is of little consequence. Thus there is no actual free move for black.
This highlights the fair number of opportunities players are given to misperceive the big picture with the Scandinavian. As an example, there is a common perception that 3.Nc3 is a tempo gaining move by white. The problem white has is that the Queen was going to move anyway, but with Nc3 his knight is now on a sub-optimal square because it hems in the c-pawn. The c-pawn cannot now easily advance to support d4 or prepare d5, and since there is no longer a white e-pawn on the board, the d-pawn is isolated and probably cannot go to d5 anytime soon. Either the knight will have to move again or some other preparatory move(s) will have to be made to support further progress. Any such moves will necessarily return the "lost tempo" back to black, but not in a way that is as noticeable as was 3.Nc3.
Meanwhile, the black Q, while it appears "active" is really not because it there are no other deployed pieces for it to support nor can it undertake any offensive actions without provoking either an actual loss of tempo and/or further effective development by white. Think of the defense then more as a positional setup in the first few moves with fairly flexible move orders.
The important point to decide is where you want your Q to end up, with a5, d8, and d6 being the most viable options. The choice you make leads to types of games that are quite different in character.
The Hanging Pawns YT channel has an excellent video series laying all of this out in a straightforward and easy-to-process presentation.
I have been trying out the Scandinavian Defence as black against 2000 rated bots. As yet I am unfamiliar with the opening having previously played the modern defence as black. Question: e4 d5 exd5 Qxd5 Nf3, is this a move order mistake from white?
Nc3 from white next move seems inevitable to me regardless. Checks on the white king just look like free development for white and wasted Queen moves from black. Seems to me that black does have a 'free' move before Nc3 forcing a tempo for white. Can this be used in a meaningful way?